Small bird-sized aerial robots are expendable and can fly over obstacles and through small openings to assist in the acquisition and distribution of intelligence during reconnaissance, surveillance, and search-and-rescue missions in urban environments. However, limited flying space and densely populated obstacle fields require a vehicle that is capable of hovering but is also maneuverable. A secondary flight mode was incorporated into a fixed-wing aircraft to preserve its maneuverability while adding the capability of hovering. An inertial measurement sensor and onboard flight control system were interfaced and used to transition the hybrid prototype from cruise to hover flight and sustain a hover autonomously. Furthermore, the hovering flight mode can be used to maneuver the aircraft through small openings such as doorways. An ultrasonic and infrared sensor suite was designed to follow exterior building walls until an ingress route was detected. Reactive control was then used to traverse the doorway and gather reconnaissance. This paper describes the holistic approach of platform development, sensor suite design, and control of the hybrid prototype.

Small unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) such as AeroVironments Puma, are designed for military support at the tactical level. These miniature UAVs can be rapidly deployed via a hand or bungee launch. Most commercial unmanned aircraft currently in service are autonomous in the sense that they can be programmed to follow GPS waypoint routes and can be updated in mid-flight. Typical missions include surveillance, reconnaissance, bomb damage assessment, and search and rescue. Although most missions are carried out at extremely low altitudes (e.g. 20100 meters), the UAV flight control systems do not have collision avoidance capabilities. Furthermore, flight in these low altitude or near-Earth environments, such as urban areas and mountainous terrain, often degrade GPS signals.

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, backpackable, 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

Near-earth environments are time consuming, labor intensive and possibly dangerous to safe guard. Accomplishing tasks like bomb detection, search-and-rescue and reconnaissance with aerial robots could save resources. This work describes the adoption of insect behavior and flight patterns to develop a MAV sensor suite. A prototype called CQAR: closed quarter aerial robot, which is capable of flying in and around buildings, through tunnels and in and out of caves is used to validate the efficiency of such a method when equipped with optic flow microsensors.

More often homeland security, disaster mitigation and military operations are performed in urban environments. Time consuming, labor intensive and possibly dangerous tasks like bomb detection, search-and-rescue and reconnaissance done with robots could save resources. An aerial robot capable of flying in closed quarters like warehouses, stadiums, underground parking lots and tunnels is featured. The working prototype can fly slowly, safely and transmit wireless video for situational awareness. The design is analytic and employs a multi-disciplinary design optimization to formulate the integration of aerodynamics, sensor suite and task performance.