Autonomous hovering of a fixed-wing micro air vehicle

Abstract

Recently, there is a need to acquire intelligence in hostile or dangerous environments such as caves, forests, or urban areas. Rather than risking human life, back-packable, bird-sized aircraft, equipped with a wireless camera, can be rapidly deployed to gather reconnaissance in such environments. However, they first must be designed to fly in tight, cluttered terrain. This paper discusses an additional flight modality for a fixed-wing aircraft, enabling it to supplement existing endurance superiority with hovering capabilities. An inertial measurement sensor and an onboard processing and control unit, used to achieve autonomous hovering, are also described. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first documented success of hovering a fixed-wing Micro Air Vehicle autonomously. © 2006 IEEE.