That must be one cool project to work on ... good luck ! Send us pictures once its done ... and tell us if u guy got it to fly !

I think it's a good idea for a professor-aided helicopter to be autonomous. ... Seriously: quite a big project to pass in a year or two! I think only good contacts to previously done projects of that area will make it possible. Not necessary to invent the gear once more.

Jyrki

You're kiddin' innit. Forget it.

I'm also working on this project at DeVry University. I have 7 months to get this project done. My team is only focusing on the navigating part of the heli though. Our goal is to get the heli to go from A to B using xyz coordinates. Stability is going to be handled by the auto hoovering module. I'm using an HCS12 microprocessor to control the remote controller of the heli. Data from the heli will be transfered by an FM tx to the HCS12. Right now we are still in the learning process of the heli controls. I think we will learn a lot while working on this project.

Go to a local club and see if you can buddy box with someone. It really helps. I can take off, land, hover, nose-in hover and correct most big mistakes after about 15 buddy box flights.

Actually this shouldnt be all that hard to accomplish. Look up the heli auto pilot for stabilization. Basically this unit will automatically keep the heli level for you.

That doesn't sound like too big of a project...

now, the robotics department at Carnegie Mellon University... they built the mars rover. That's a big project!