Safe autonomous flight is essential for widespread acceptance of aircraft that must fly close
to the ground. We have developed a method of collision avoidance that can be used in three
dimensions in much the same way as autonomous ground vehicles that navigate over
unexplored terrain. Safe navigation is accomplished by a combination of online
environmental sensing, path planning and collision avoidance. Here we report results with
an autonomous helicopter that operates at low elevations in uncharted environments some …

Safe autonomous flight is essential for widespread acceptance of aircraft that must fly close
to the ground. We have developed a method of collision avoidance that can be used in three
dimensions in much the same way as autonomous ground vehicles that navigate over
unexplored terrain. Safe navigation is accomplished by a combination of online
environmental sensing, path planning and collision avoidance. Here we outline our
methodology and report results with an autonomous helicopter that operates at low …