KEY FEATURE
Autonomous flight using LiDAR control and direction detection with lighting
In order to provide self-positioning in GPS-denied environments such as inside of a smoke stack, a LiDAR is being used. By taking advantage of LiDAR's unique ability to understand the shape of an object even in dark places, system creates point clouds of surroundings. The distance between the drone and the smoke stack wall is calculated by illuminating the smoke stack with LiDAR in the horizontal direction, and the drone is always controlled to stay in the center position. For orientation recognition, the lights on the smoke stack base are captured by a camera mounted on the drone. This allows the drone to recognize changes in its heading. These technologies enable the drone fly stably in the smoke stack of more than 100 meters high.