Swiss Researchers are Bringing Autonomy to UAVs
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While current UAVs have no pilot on board, they still require a human operator. Weather and terrain conditions, as well as technical difficulties, can interfere with communication lines and seriously hamper operational capabilities. Now, a team of Swiss researchers are bringing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles one step closer to being fully autonomous.
Researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich have developed a micro air vehicle (MAV) with advanced self-flight capabilities. The researchers started with a small quad-rotor aircraft – the AscTec Firefly, which weighs 1.6 kilograms – and equipped it with a stereo camera and sensors, as well as an additional on board computer to process velocity, orientation and gravitational forces.
The Swiss MAV can re-localise, create consistent maps, and plan paths in full 3D, in completely new environments. Human assistance is still required, but only in the initial stages. An operator is needed to help the MAV carry out an exploratory flight in its new environment, after which stage the drone takes over and can find its way around the flight area.
The additional weight from the sensors and camera poses a problem for the drone. For now, flight time is limited to seven minutes, as opposed to 15 minutes for an unencumbered drone. However, the researchers believe that this limitation can be easily overcome. Newer drone designs on the market could achieve a flight time of 20 minutes with the same payload.
To test the drone, the researchers ventured out to an old industrial site – a location full of obstacles and hazards that best match real world conditions.
“The individual mapping and sensor techniques have been demonstrated before, but not all together on an autonomous drone,” says Wolfram Burgard, a professor at the University of Freiburg, Germany. “This brings the technology closer to real-world application in inspection and surveillance tasks.”
The next challenge for the team is giving their drone evasive capabilities, such as avoiding humans or other moving objects that don’t appear on its map. When successful we will be one giant leap closer to autonomous machines in the sky.
