Berkeley Aerobot Team’s Ursa Electra UAV series is, as the name implies, based on an electrically powered radio-control helicopter, Maxi-Joker. It was originally designed to serve as the vehicle platform for a DARPA Perch-n-Move project. The helicopter is capable of fully autonomous takeoff and landing without any external support, unlike its gas-powered siblings need for engine start. To facilitate the autonomous flight, each UAV is equipped with small-size strapdown inertial navigation system, high-accuracy DGPS, flight computer based on industrial PC-104, and several other sensors for the specific needs to support various research programs. Laser range finders, firewire cameras, ultrasonic sensor arrays are such examples. Ursa Electra helicopters are powered by extremely high capacity Lithium-Polymer batteries, which provides the enormous amount of electric charge to enable the vehicle to fly around 20 minutes, which is longer than the flight time of similar sized craft with fuel tanks of standard capacity. The vehicle's operation is quiet, clean, and requires much lower maintenance. All it takes to start is just a flick of a switch on the transmitter and the vehicle is in the air.
