One of the biggest issues with robotic planes or helicopters, also known as drones, is that they are not very good at avoiding obstacles on their own. In other words, they need a human pilot on the ground to prevent them from crashing. But that could change soon.
Researchers at Cornell University have developed software that, coupled with a camera and hardware that mimics a brain, helps a small drone to dodge obstacles like trees or poles.
The software makes the drone turn an image taken with its camera into a 3D model of the environment. The robotic brain can then determine which objects are obstacles and change its route accordingly. This would solve one of the biggest hurdles towards fully autonomous drones: their lack of good "sense and avoid" systems.
The lead researcher, Ashutosh Saxena, hopes to further develop the software capabilities making the drone able to calculate wind patterns and avoid moving objects, like birds.
Software like this could have huge implications for the future of drones in the U.S. as the Federal Aviation Authority prepares to implement them in the domestic aerospace before 2015. The military's far-out research arm, DARPA, and defense giant and drone-producer Lockheed Martin are funding the research, underlining the importance that this project has in the eyes of the U.S. government and the private sector.
Watch the video above to learn more about how this software works and to see the small quadrocopter move around autonomously.
Photo courtesy of Cornell University.