Randall Marsh TU Delft has developed the world’s smallest autopilot

With the help of the tiny autopilot， UAVs could be small enough to fit in your pocket

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As the word “drone” has become so commonplace that you can literally build a UAV out of anything， researchers are aiming to make the technology smaller and more usable in everyday practice. Bart Remes， project manager at the Micro Aerial Vehicle Laboratory at the TU Delft faculty of Aerospace Engineering， has led a group of researchers to the creation of the world‘s smallest autopilot.

The team’s goal is to eventually create MAVs （Micro Aerial Vehicles） small enough to fit into your pocket， but that does little good when you have to carry around a controller for the craft as well – hence， the quest to create a tiny autopilot system.

The system has been dubbed Lisa/S， and it weighs in at just 1.9 grams （0.07 oz） with a footprint of 2 x 2 cm （0.8 x 0.8 in）。 “Part of the challenge was just making everything fit to such a small board，” Remes tells Gizmag. “We had to write software from scratch that could fit the small module， and communicate with the ground station and an RC at the same time.” The radio receiver/datalink technology that the team used is known as SuperbitRF， and it is open-source paparazzi software.

Remes says that he hopes to help make UAVs as common as a cell phone or laptop， which is what drove his team to propagate the software as open-source. “The best way to ［make UAVs prevalent］ is making ［the software］ available for the public， so they can come up with the killer application， like Facebook is for the smartphone，” Remes explains.

“The overall strategy of the lab is to make everything smaller， lightweight， and computationally and electrically efficient. Why？ Because in the flying world everything is about weight and efficiency. If the autopilot is smaller and more efficient， you can fly longer or carry more payload，” Remes says. The smaller autopilot allows an MAV to stay in the air longer and carry higher-quality cameras or sensors. This is ideal for the team‘s intended search and rescue purpose.

Specifically， the team is looking to firefighting and building reconnaissance as key uses for Lisa/S. “The technology is ready. Only， the rules make it hard to implement it， just yet. When the governments make it possible， it will happen，” says Remes.

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TU Delft已研發(fā)出世界上最小的微型自動駕駛儀 蘭達(dá)爾 代爾夫特已經(jīng)開發(fā)出世界上最小的autopilot

隨著微型自動駕駛儀的幫助下，無人機(jī)可以小到可以放在你的口袋里《 / P 》圖像畫廊（11張）

隨著“無人駕駛飛機(jī)”這個詞變得如此普遍以至于你可以從任何東西上真正構(gòu)建無人機(jī)，研究人員的目標(biāo)是使這種技術(shù)在日常實踐中更小、更實用。圖爾夫特宇航工程學(xué)院微型飛行器實驗室的項目經(jīng)理Bart Remes帶領(lǐng)一群研究人員創(chuàng)造了世界上最小的自動駕駛儀。

團(tuán)隊的目標(biāo)是最終建立小牛（微充氣Al）足夠小，以適應(yīng)你的口袋，但這并不好，當(dāng)你必須隨身攜帶的工藝，以及-因此，尋求建立一個微小的自動駕駛系統(tǒng)。《 /對》該系統(tǒng)已被稱為麗莎/秒，它的重量僅為1.9克（0.07盎司）的足跡為2×2厘米（0.8×0.8英寸）。挑戰(zhàn)的一部分就是使一切適合這幺小的板，”雷米斯告訴Gizmag?！蔽覀儾坏貌粡念^開始寫軟件，能適應(yīng)小模塊，并與地面站同時RC溝通。”無線電接收器/數(shù)據(jù)鏈技術(shù)，研究小組利用被稱為superbitrf，它是開源的狗仔隊軟件。

雷米斯說他希望使無人機(jī)作為常見的手機(jī)或筆記本電腦，這是什么使他的團(tuán)隊宣傳軟件作為開源的?！币裕凼篃o人機(jī)普遍］使［供公共軟件］的最佳方式，所以他們能拿出殺手級應(yīng)用，如Facebook的智能手機(jī)，”雷米斯說。

”總體戰(zhàn)略的實驗室是讓一切變小，重量輕，計算和電效率。為什么？因為在飛行世界里一切都是關(guān)于重量和效率。如果駕駛的是更小的和更有效的，你可以飛長或攜帶更多的有效載荷，”雷米斯說。小型自動駕駛儀允許MAV在空中停留更長的時間和更高質(zhì)量的攝像機(jī)或傳感器。這對于球隊的預(yù)期的搜索和救援的目的是理想。

具體來說，團(tuán)隊正在消防和建筑勘察重點(diǎn)使用麗莎/美國“技術(shù)準(zhǔn)備。只是，規(guī)則使得它很難實現(xiàn)它，只是。當(dāng)政府成為可能，它會發(fā)生，”說，雷米斯。