The Yamaha R-MAX is a Japanese

unmanned An uncrewed vehicle or unmanned vehicle is a vehicle without a person on board. Uncrewed vehicles can either be under telerobotic control—remote controlled or remote guided vehicles—or they can be autonomously controlled—autonomous vehicl ...

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

developed by the

Yamaha Motor Company is a Japanese multinational manufacturer of motorcycles, marine products such as boats and outboard motors, and other motorized products. The company was established in 1955 upon separation from Yamaha Corporation (however, Yamaha Corporation ...

in the 1990s. The

gasoline Gasoline (; ) or petrol (; ) (see ) is a transparent, petroleum-derived flammable liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in most spark-ignited internal combustion engines (also known as petrol engines). It consists mostly of organic co ...

-powered aircraft has a two-bladed

rotor Rotor may refer to: Science and technology Engineering *Rotor (electric), the non-stationary part of an alternator or electric motor, operating with a stationary element so called the stator * Helicopter rotor, the rotary wing(s) of a rotorcraft ...

and is remote-controlled by a line-of-sight user. It was designed primarily for agricultural use, and is capable of precise

aerial spraying Aerial application, or what is informally referred to as crop dusting, involves spraying crops with crop protection products from an agricultural aircraft. Planting certain types of seed are also included in aerial application. The specific sp ...

of crops. The R-MAX has been used in Japan and abroad for agriculture and a variety of other roles, including

aerial survey Aerial survey is a method of collecting geomatics or other imagery by using airplanes, helicopters, UAVs, balloons or other aerial methods. Typical types of data collected include aerial photography, Lidar, remote sensing (using various visible ...

reconnaissance In military operations, reconnaissance or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, terrain, and other activities. Examples of reconnaissance include patrolling by troops (skirmisher ...

, disaster response and technology development.

Development

The Yamaha R-MAX and its predecessor, the Yamaha R-50, were developed in the 1990s in response to demand in the Japanese market for aerial agricultural spraying. Fixed-wing manned

crop duster A crop is a plant that can be grown and harvested extensively for profit or subsistence. When the plants of the same kind are cultivated at one place on a large scale, it is called a crop. Most crops are cultivated in agriculture or hydroponic ...

s had been in use in Japan for many years, but the small size of most Japanese farms meant that this method was inefficient. Manned helicopters were sometimes used for spraying, but were very expensive. The R-MAX allowed much more precise small-scale spraying, at a lower cost and lower risk than manned aircraft.Sato, Akira
"The R-MAX Helicopter UAV" (PDF)
DTIC.mil. 2 September 2003. Retrieved 30 October 2014. The R-MAX was approved for operation in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

by the

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...

in 2015.

Operational history

, the R-MAX fleet has conducted over two million hours of flying time in agricultural roles and several other capacities, including aerial sensing, photography, academic research, and military applications.

Volcano observation

In the spring of 2000, the Japanese government requested the use of an R-MAX to observe the eruption of

Mount Usu is an active stratovolcano in the Shikotsu-Toya National Park, Hokkaido, Japan. It has erupted four times since 1900: in 1910 (which created Meiji-shinzan 神沼克伊,小山悦郎 ''日本の火山を科学する　日本列島津々浦々、 ...

, which had been dormant for 22 years, as close observation of the volcano was deemed too dangerous for manned helicopters. The R-MAX allowed scientific observers to spot and measure build-ups of

volcanic ash Volcanic ash consists of fragments of rock, mineral crystals, and volcanic glass, created during volcano, volcanic eruptions and measuring less than 2 mm (0.079 inches) in diameter. The term volcanic ash is also often loosely used t ...

which would have otherwise been missed, and improved the observers' ability to predict hazardous volcanic

mudslide A mudflow or mud flow is a form of mass wasting involving fast-moving flow of debris that has become liquified by the addition of water. Such flows can move at speeds ranging from 3 meters/minute to 5 meters/second. Mudflows contain a significa ...

Fukushima nuclear disaster

Yamaha R-MAXs were used in the wake of the

2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami The occurred at 14:46 JST (05:46 UTC) on 11 March. The magnitude 9.0–9.1 (M) undersea megathrust earthquake had an epicenter in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region, and lasted approximately six minutes ...

to monitor radiation levels around the site of the

Fukushima nuclear disaster The was a nuclear accident in 2011 at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima, Japan. The proximate cause of the disaster was the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which occurred on the afternoon of 11 March 2011 and ...

from inside the "no-entry" zone.

Research

The R-MAX has been used by several universities worldwide for guidance and automatic control research. In 2002,

Georgia Tech The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...

'
UAV Research Facility
began using a Yamaha R-MAX for research into autonomous aerial guidance, navigation, and control systems.

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

, the

University of California Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...

UC Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...

and

Virginia Tech Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also ...

have also used R-MAX units for research.

Variants

In May 2014, Yamaha partnered with the American defense firm

Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense technology company. With 90,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $30 billion, it is one of the world's largest weapons manufacturers and military techn ...

to produce the fully autonomous R-Bat variant of the R-MAX which they see having military and civilian applications."Photo Release -- Northrop Grumman, Yamaha Motor, U.S.A., Collaborate on Unmanned Helicopter System"

via GlobeNewsWire.com. 8 May 2014. Retrieved 12 August 2015.

Specifications (R-MAX)

References

{{reflist Unmanned helicopters Unmanned aerial vehicles of Japan Agricultural robotics Airborne military robots