TUM achieves first fully-automatic landing with vision assisted navigation
July 8, 2019
MUNICH, Germany - Automatic landing systems using radio guidance have been a feature of commercial airliners for decades, but there's never been a heart-in-your-mouth touchdown quite like this. In an incredible new video, researchers show a test flight in which a small four-seater plane fitted with an experimental optical positioning system successfully nails an entirely automated landing – much to the relief of the test pilot observer sitting in the cockpit (not to mention us watching at home), writes Peter Dockrill for ScienceAlert.com. Continue reading original article
The Intelligent Aerospace take:
July 8, 2019-Autopilot during takeoff and landings have reduced stress in cockpits for decades, but researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have pulled off a pretty neat achievement: they have landed a small aircraft without any ground-based antennas to facilitate the maneuver. Three papers have been published about the technology, which utilizes a computer vision system to recognize runways and can put the aircraft down on the tarmac with zero input from the pilot(s).
