Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are now a proven commodity of the modern day battlefield, providing real-time imagery data feeds, targeting, prosecution, and round-the-clock monitoring of high-value targets. However, the command, control, and tasking decisions of UAV assets are still executed at locations remote from the frontlines. The buzz around the next generation of UAV systems is to equip frontline soldiers with scaled-down UAV’s; thus, giving them an invaluable resource to aid with timely and well-informed execution of the observe, orient, decide, and act (OODA) loop.
A micro-copter is a VTOL (Vertical takeoff and landing) platform that provides many advantages over conventional aircraft platforms. These advantages include ease of launch and recovery, hover capability, and a more compact form factor. The ICE Lab has developed hardware and software solutions for several micro-copter applications, including direct georeferencing from smart phones, image analysis, sensor system integration, and custom gimbal design.