Papers
4
Total Citations
67
H-Index
3
About
Franz Andert is a leading researcher in autonomous aerial systems, specializing in navigation, obstacle detection, and flight control for unmanned aircraft. His work centers on enabling safe, precise operations in complex, GPS-denied environments—critical for disaster response and urban terrain missions. Andert’s most influential contribution is the development of an unmanned helicopter capable of fully autonomous flights in urban terrain (42 citations), a foundational achievement in sense-and-avoid technology. He further advanced the field with the ATON (Autonomous Terrain-based Optical Navigation) system, successfully demonstrated in flight tests for planetary exploration (20 citations). Andert also pioneered the use of robotic total stations for aerial tracking and GNSS-reference localization, offering a robust alternative for precise navigation in cluttered settings. His research integrates classical robotics with aircraft-specific techniques, as seen in his work on stereo-based obstacle mapping for collision avoidance. Based at DLR’s Unmanned Aircraft Department, Andert’s innovations directly address the challenges of low-altitude flight in unknown environments, making him a key figure in the evolution of autonomous aerial systems.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1An Unmanned Helicopter for Autonomous Flights in Urban Terrain42 citations · 2009
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- 4Stereo-Based Obstacle Mapping from a Helicopter Platform2 citations · 2007