Model: Eurocopter EC-120 Kolibri Pilot: Bernd Pöting / http://www.jetschule.de/ Engine: Turbine Jakadofsky Pro 6000 Rotor diameter: app. 2.50 m 

Research on small autonomous helicopters can be broadly classified into research on indoor autonomous flight and that on outdoor autonomous flight. This study proposes an autonomous flight system for an indoor environment. Applications in areas such as indoor inspection activities and payload transportation are expected for the future. The proposed autonomous flight system comprises a measurement section and a control section.

The measurement section that measures the location and pose of the airframe during indoor autonomous flight is of critical importance. For airframe detection indoor GPS (Niwa et al., 2008, Van Diggelen, 2002) or an infrastructure camera can be used. Sufficient accuracy cannot be obtained with an indoor GPS, making it difficult to apply to a small helicopter. The method of using an infrastructure camera to detect distinctive markers such as LEDs and color markers attached to the airframe (Angeletti et al., 2008, Lee et al., 2013a, Misaki and Fujimoto, 2008) is one example of use of an infrastructure camera. Infrastructure cameras have the advantage of being able to visually perceive the surrounding environment in addition to information concerning the airframe. However, small helicopters have limited airframe space and additional components create extra load on the airframe.