Autonomous Coaxial Micro Air Vehicle

 Dr. Abhishek, Autonomous Helicopter Lab, Department of Aerospace Engineering

Our group's main focus is on rotary winged vehicles aka Helicopters and their cousins. We are part of the Autonomous Helicopter Lab where we are trying to solve some of the fundamental problems associated with the development of autonomous Micro (Micro Coaxial Autonomous Heli) and Mini Helicopters. Apart from the MAV related work, we are also actively involved in barrier problems associated with Helicopter dynamics, aerodynamics and flight dynamics. Focus is on the development of state-of-the-art tools to be used in industry for the design of future generation helicopters with the aim of attaining self reliance in helicopter analysis and prediction capability.

Micro Coaxial Autonomous Heli (MiCAH)

Goal is to develop a hover capable, autonomous Micro Air Vehicle. The desired characteristics include capabilities such as auto-take off and landing, autonomous hover with velocity and position hold followed by autonomous flight with way-point navigation. The platform chosen for this work is a Coaxial Micro Air Vehicle instrumented at IIT Kanpur (see image below) using optic flow sensors, IMU, infrared sensors and SONAR. The above milestones would be achieved in a step by step manner. Significant progress has been made in the autonomous take off capability as well as autonomous hover using velocity feedback.