Nine years ago, the concept of a flying Air Mule robot capable of transporting people from point “A” to point “B” without the direct participation in this process was presented to the world. First of all, the military became interested in the project, who saw the use of such a compact aircraft to evacuate soldiers from hot spots without risking the lives of crew members. But the project then seemed like something from the field of science fiction. But here we were suddenly shown a working prototype of such a flying taxi.
For nine years, the project changed its name from Air Mule to Cormorant, in honor of cormorants of cormorants. The drone is controlled by a fully computerized system with a variety of sensors integrated into the vehicle. The taxi is equipped with two laser altimeters, a radar, inertial sensors, an electro-optical camera and many other devices that constantly monitor the status of the drone and study the world around it. The autopilot is able to independently take off, move along the route laid by the system, choose a place to land and land. This is not just an autopilot, but a complete system capable of making independent decisions and acting differently depending on the situation.
The design of the Cormorant is rather gloomy and minimalistic. The taxi is almost devoid of windows and is made of brushed black metal, which suggests thoughts about the military version of the vehicle. In the video below you can see how the drone made its first test flight. So far, not everything goes as smoothly as the developers conceived, for example, there were some problems with landing, but now we can say with certainty that this technology has quite a good potential.
The article is based on materials .
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