“Bat Radar” To Help Prevent Drone Accidents

“Bat Radar” To Help Prevent Drone Accidents

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Much has been said of the concern about aerial accidents due to drones crashing into other aerial vehicles and it may be that Panoptes System Crop has found a solution in a technology that will be even more useful for commercial UAV flights.

The new compay’s eBumper4 sonar system uses bats’ sonar sense which allows nevigation and orientration via sound waves. Bats “call out” and the time that passes between the call and its echo helps them know the distance of objects reflecting the echo. Today many researches are being conducted on the bats’ sonar systems in order to learn from it how to improve navigation means and radars.

The eBumper4 systems works on that very same principal and is designed to allow UAVs to keep their distance from obstacles. With it the UAV can detect object as far as 4.5 km at a speed of 9.5 km/h. Another advantage the system has, the company says, is its user friendly operation. The company’s chief technology officer, Fabrice Kunzi, says that anyone who can operate a screwdriver can put together this UAV in 10-15 minutes. He added that “It’s best used for the loitering applications where you’re intentionally flying slowly”.

Kunzi said that the next generation of technology will give a UAV that flies in open skies at a maximum altitude of 150 meters the ability to detect and avoid other aerial vehicles, flying lower than it. He says, “As a commercial pilot and a mechanical engineer, I look at this problem not just from the perspective of how to keep a UAV from hitting a child in the backyard, but also from the bigger picture of the national airspace system and the safe integration between manned and unmanned aircraft.”

The company believes that a single solution to the danger of UAVs crashing into other onjects couldn’t solve the entire problem, but there are sub-categories of the problems that should be pointedly resolved.

So however technology and nature may seem opposite at times, you could be surprised at the number of ways nature is influencing advanced scientific developments. Sometimes it’s not neseccary to look into the future, but better perhaps to look back to the millions of years of nature’s evolution.

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