Unmanned Rotorcraft Demonstrator ARTIS: Challenges in Autonomous Control and Teaming

Abstract

The DLR Institute of Flight Systems has developed a technology demonstrator for autonomous vertical take-off and landing flight. The autonomous Rotorcraft Testbed for Intelligent Systems (ARTIS) is designed to be an inexpensive multi-purpose research platform. This paper describes the design of the unmanned rotorcraft, as well as introduce the research agenda for the ARTIS project and thus will provide an outlook on current and planned areas of rotorcraft UAV research at DLR. The ARTIS research vehicle is utilized as a testbed for research in flight controls and onboard image processing. Furthermore, it can be used as a demonstrator in a manned-unmanned teaming scenario with a full scale helicopter. This research is supported by an extensive simulation capabilities and software infrastructure developed for the ARTIS project.