A Full-Sized Unmanned Helicopter Flies for the first time

The Little Bird, a full-sized autonomous helicopter made its first flight last June. For the first time, a full sized autonomous robot performed an entire flight (including take-off, obstacle avoidance,  and landing) by itself. The helicopter is a modified MD 530F and features all the high-tech sensors you would expect in a UAV, but in harder, better, faster and stronger. The robot was made by an Army-funded research team from Carnegie Mellon and the Piasecki Aircraft Corporation. The video below illustrates the type of maneuvers the unmanned helicopter  can do but features one of its smaller cousins. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Skdh4Nwm6r4 We cannot wait to see the full-sized chopper robot try some aggressive manoeuvres like other UAVs do. Via Wired.