Drones Are Learning to Fly by Sight
Quadcopter drones may be among the most maneuverable aerial vehicles around, but when it comes to squeezing through tight spaces, they have a tough time. Flying through a narrow opening requires precise positioning and careful speed control, leaving little room for error. Even small disturbances can send a drone into a wall, branch, or other obstacle.
A group led by researchers at Zhejiang University has developed a new approach that enables drones to fly through narrow openings without loading them down with lots of bulky sensors. Instead of relying on a traditional robotics stack built around state estimation, gap detection, trajectory planning, and control, the team trained a neural network to directly convert camera images and other onboard sensor data into low-level flight commands. This system allows a quadcopter to make split-second decisions and perform aggressive maneuvers that would normally require carefully engineered software pipelines.
An overview of the platform...
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