MIT’s Autonomous Helicopter: What if Big Dog Could Fly? [Robots]

The latest Micro Air Vehicle from MIT does an incredible job of balancing itself in-air. Not to mention that the helicopter models it's surroundings so well it could probably fly over to the fridge and make you a sandwich.
By using lasers and 3D cameras, the team built a vision engine that can very accurately define the helicopter's surrounding environment. That's only part of the trick to getting it to fly so well, the other half is some pretty sweet flight path correction. Think of it like a flying Big Dog. Check out what happens when the guy pokes it with a stick.
Hopefully no one sticks a spinning blade on this thing. Wouldn't want that flying through my window at night. [Gizmodo via MIT Tech TV via Engadget]