Flying robot taxi takes first autonomous flight

In January of this year, the Air Mule took its first flight: a short, wobbly hop from the side of a parking lot to a space a modest distance away.

This week, Air Mule makers Urban Aeronautics announced two major feats for the Air Mule program.

The first is a new name: Cormorant, after the family of coastal birds. The second is a full, autonomous flight on a preplanned route.

According to Urban Aeronautics, the vehicle’s Flight Control System made the decision to land too early on first trial.

Decisions by the flight controls are checked by the craft’s flight management system, like a pilot overseen by a captain.

Read also: Apple considers moving iPhone production from Taiwan to the US

These decisions are all informed by an array of sensors, including “two laser altimeters, a radar altimeter, inertial sensors, and an electro-optic payload camera.”

Lots of other unmanned aircraft use some combination of these sensors, but few have the unique design of the Cormorant, which puts the rotors inside the craft.

That compact, unique design is tricky to get right. But if Urban Aeronautics can figure it out, the result will be a robot that can fly inside cities, weaving between buildings and hovering above any dangers on the ground below.

 

RipplesNigeria ….without borders, without fears

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now