Autonomous Control System of Compact Model-helicopter

We introduce an autonomous flying system using a model-helicopter. A feature of the helicopter is that autonomous flight is realized on the low-cost compact model-helicopter. Our helicopter system is divided into two parts. One is on the helicopter, and the other is on the land. The helicopter is loaded with a vision sensor and an electronic compass including a tilt sensor. The control system on the land monitors the helicopter movement and controls. We firstly introduce the configuration of our helicopter system with a vision sensor and an electronic compass. To determine the 3-D position and posture of helicopter, a technique of image recognition using a monocular image is described based on the idea of the sensor fusion of vision and electronic compass. Finally, we show an experiment result, which we obtained in the hovering. The result shows the effectiveness of our system in the compact model-helicopter.