Super-Lightweight Drone Autonomously Avoids Obstacles

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By Adario Strange2013-12-17 03:28:20 UTC

The age of commercial and private drones is upon us, exemplified by increasingly common stories of drone mishaps and even the likes Amazon announcing plans to launch a drone delivery service in the coming years.

But there may not always be enough handlers trained or available to control all the varieties of drones making their way into the skies, so one team from the Netherlands developed a lightweight unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that can traverse the skies on its own.

See also: Quadrocopter Drone Can Snatch Up Objects Like an Eagle

With a 28-centimeter wingspan and weighing just 20 grams (about the weight of four sheets of paper), the DelFly Explorer uses a small stereovision system, composed of two cameras and a tiny embedded computer, to avoid obstacles in its path.

The stereovision system (which weighs just 4 grams) allows the DelFly Explorer to determine the distance between it and any flight barriers in its environment in real-time.

In the presentation video, the DelFly Explorer’s creators envision the device being used for reconnaissance missions in emergency situations and even during concerts to allow for innovative video shoots.

However, at present, there are no plans to try to bring the DelFly Explorer to the commercial market. Instead its creators are focusing on further developing the capabilities of the device.

“For commercialization, there is still a long road to go,” Dr. Guido de Croon an assistant professor at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, told Mashable. “We are currently continuing our research by investigating how the DelFly Explorer can pass through a window or door, so that it can go from room to room.”

This version of the DelFly Explorer can autonomously fly vertically and horizontally to avoid obstacles, but its creators want to make a future version of the device even more self-sufficient.

“We want to develop methods so that the DelFly can fly around and also find its way back,” says de Croons. “These things are still very challenging, given the onboard constraints.”

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Image: DelFly

Topics: dones, Gadgets, Robot, Tech, UAV