We demonstrated this technology on a STAT Medevac EC-135 helicopter flown manually by a medevac pilot.  Our pilot provided experienced feedback on the correctness of the landing zone solutions our software provides.

Our technology evaluates unknown terrain to find an appropriate landing zone for manned and unmanned helicopters.  It uses a downward-scanning LADAR coupled with an inertial/GPS navigation system to build a 3-dimensional map of the terrain.  Our software then analyses the resulting map in real time and selects and displays appropriate sites based on terrain slope and roughness, vicinity to obstacles, clearance of a 3-D model of the helicopter over terrain, and nearness to the user-selected desired landing site.

Ongoing work focuses on more parameters important in making a landing decision.  First, the approach path: A helicopter usually flies with a glide slope during final approach.  We select a path that is free of obstacles, into the wind, clear of ridge-line turbulence,  and has options for an abort path if last-minute obstacle is discovered.  The new software also considers what must happen on the ground: the landing zone it selects will have a human-traversable path to the desired ground objective such as a casualty location or a supply base.  For example, it will not land on the wrong side of a river.  Finally, our new system incorporates previously-known information on no-fly and no-land zones.

More detailed information is shown at our project website:

http://www.frc.ri.cmu.edu/landingdemo/index.html

Publications:

Online Assessment of Landing Sites

Sebastian Scherer, Lyle J. Chamberlain, and Sanjiv Singh

AIAA Infotech@Aerospace 2010, April, 2010 

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