More UAV pictures and videos of Japan's destroyed nuclear plant

From IEEE Spectrum:

"Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the plant's operator, is using a T-Hawk [photo below], a remote operated flying machine created by U.S. firm Honeywell, to get a closer view of the severely damaged reactors.

The T-Hawk, known as a micro air vehicle, or MAV, uses a ducted-fan propulsion system that allows it to hover in place like a helicopter and fly into tight spaces where other aircraft can't go.

Last Friday, TEPCO workers, with assistance from Honeywell employees trained to pilot the T-Hawk, used the vehicle to survey the reactor buildings at Units 1, 3, and 4.

TEPCO has used manned helicopters, high-altitude drones, andground robots to obtain images of the facility. But the T-Hawk, because pilots can hold it in place and use its camera to zoom in on features, is giving TEPCO a better look of damages in and around the buildings.

The photos and videos of the latest T-Hawk survey, released on Saturday, show piles of debris, badly damaged walls, and collapsed roofs, with smoke still coming out of Unit 3. In some images of Unit 4 it's possible to see parts of the reactor and spent fuel pool."

Lots more pictures like the below and videos in the post.

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Comments

Jack Crossfire April 21, 2011 at 1:49pm

Our summary of image stabilization:

http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/marcy-1-amp-marcy-2-4-u
Lorentz April 21, 2011 at 1:33pm

@John

Thank you, I really appreciate your explanation.
Squalish April 21, 2011 at 9:03am

Jack, do you think you could elaborate on your process? This looks very useful.
Developer

John Arne Birkeland April 21, 2011 at 7:03am

@Lorentz: The radiation in Japan is high but nowhere close to Chernobyl levels, so people are fine staying close by for shorter amounts of time. Even at Chernobyl only those people that worked close by for long periods of time (mostly the firemen that first arriving at the scene, and worked in the debris all night) died and/or suffered serious long term symptoms from radiation exposure. My point is that if you know what you are doing working in a radiation environment is possible and has a calculated health risk that is manageable.
Gord Likar April 20, 2011 at 2:42pm

Cool machine Chris, are they using the ArduIMU? Just kidding.

Closeup video of the T-Hawk.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHsrIEzl8MM&feature=player_embedded
Jack Crossfire April 20, 2011 at 2:35pm

Looks like a job for stabilizo man.

A gift from the unemployed masses to Honeywell.
Lorentz April 20, 2011 at 1:45pm

Great find, Chris.

Wondering who's driving the car passing on minute 2:02. Unless it was unmanned too ...

This reply was deleted.