Video: Drones avoid each other like awkward humans
No, I insist, after you. That awkward moment in the street is something drones can now share with us, thanks to an update for their navigation systems.
Parker Conroy and his team at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City have designed a collision-avoidance system that allows quadcopter drones to 鈥渟ee鈥� each other and take steps to avoid crashing in mid-air. Cameras detect patterns on an oncoming quadcopter, and how large these appear allows the drone to gauge the approaching craft鈥檚 distance. The rate at which this changes can be used to work out their relative velocity. An off-board computer then calculates the area within which a collision could occur and tells the drone to take evasive action.
Sometimes, however, the drones misjudge the trajectory of their partner and dodge in the same direction. They automatically correct their paths, but for a moment they are engaged in a human-like 鈥渞eciprocal dance鈥�.
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鈥淚t鈥檚 not often you see robots dancing on their own,鈥� says Conroy, who now works for robot manufacturer Adept Technology. 鈥淚f you鈥檙e walking down the hall, you yourself as a person are estimating the velocity of the other person and sometimes you make a mistake,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he same thing is happening with the robot and you get this situation where you both move to the same side.鈥�
Artificial intuition
Mirko Kovac at Imperial College London鈥檚 says recent advances in artificial intelligence are faithfully reproducing animal behaviour more frequently, thanks to algorithms that give machines 鈥渋nstincts鈥� rather than high-level intelligence about a situation.
鈥淚nstead of having something that鈥檚 very precise and computationally intensive, it鈥檚 more like having a low-level impulse. They run, see something, avoid it and keep on running, just like insects or animals do,鈥� he says.
Kovac adds that flying robots of the future need to develop these instinctive capabilities, be more physically robust like bees or other flying insects, and do all processing on-board. 鈥淭his research is an important step towards that,鈥� he adds.
Michael Perry of major drone manufacturer DJI, says that this collision-avoidance technology will mean that future drones can be used out of the operator鈥檚 line of sight. 鈥淒elivery, long-range crop monitoring, pipe inspection 鈥� these tasks will be significantly easier if flight beyond the operator鈥檚 direct line of sight has collision avoidance safeguards,鈥� he says.
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