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Physics student Darius Merk has used an insect-inspired algorithm to develop a drone that can navigate around obstacles. His research could prove particularly useful in a natural disaster.

A drone could of course be remotely controlled, but you would lose contact with the device if it went behind a wall. Swiss EPFL physics student and robot enthusiast Darius Merk has found a solution inspired by insects’ vision and developed in EPFL’s Laboratory of Intelligent Systems for his Master’s project.

The drone is completely autonomous and can detect obstacles in order to avoid a collision. The drone uses stereoscopic vision to determine depth and distance. “Using cameras to simulate the human eye requires a lot of computing power,” says Merk. “For this, the drone would need to have a small on-board computer, which would make it difficult to miniaturize.”

Merk came up with a drone that can see like insects with their faceted eyes: “Insects find their way by using their optical flow to assess how an image moves, with a distant object moving more slowly than a closer one,” explains Merk. A drone that sees like an insect requires only two 15g cameras – one at the front and one at the back – to get a 360-degree view of the terrain. The device uses very little computing power, so it could potentially be reduced to around 10cm in size.

The technology would be extremely handy in a natural disaster, as it could be used to help rescuers and to scout the terrain. The drone is light, autonomous and capable of getting around obstacles – it will be able to follow a programmed course in order to bring back videos and images of areas that are hard to reach.