3-D Site Mapping with the CMU Autonomous Helicopter

This paper describes a scanning laser rangefinder developed for integration with the Carnegie Mellon University autonomous helicopter. The combination of an unmanned, autonomous helicopter with a 3-D scanning laser rangefinder has many potential applications; such as terrain modeling or structure inspection. To achieve high accuracy (10 cm) in each 3-D measurement, careful attention must be paid to minimizing errors, in particular, errors in measuring the direction of the laser’s beam. This paper discusses our approach to minimize these errors. Results are presented from early test flights.