We have developed a low-cost, lightweight coaxial-rotor MAV capable of full attitude control using just two actuators. The vehicle provides real-time telemetry and high-quality video to a ground station which can be used to remotely pilot the vehicle. The design integrates the underactuated rotor system developed in the lab with parts of cheap helicopter toys …
Read more “American Helicopter Society Student MAV Challenge 2015”
We modeled and built Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs) that naturally hover without any sensing or control. These types of vehicles, called passively stabilized vehicles, can be made less complicated, more robust, and at lower cost with the addition of simple, yet carefully designed, stabilizer sails.
We extract thrust, roll, and pitch authority from a single propeller and single motor through an underactuated mechanism embedded in the rotor itself. This allows new types of conventionally-capable micro air vehicles now requiring only two motors. This contrasts with the servos and linkages of conventional helicopters or the four drive motors in quadrotors.