High-speed aviation robot with high safety. Credit: University of Hong Kong
A team of engineers and roboticists from the University of Hong Kong designed, built and tested aviation robots that can navigate unknown environments at high speed and safely, while avoiding obstacles. In a paper published in the journal Science Robotics, the group overcomes problems encountered by others trying to build similar robots, and how well the Quadcopter robots performed during testing worked It explains.
For several years, roboticists have been trying to build flying robots that could function like birds. It moves at high speeds, adapting to unknown conditions, such as wind, power lines, wooden limbs, and other objects suddenly appearing. Their way.
Most such flying robots rely on different types of sensors and cameras that need to process huge amounts of video data, slowing down the speed at which they can operate. In this new effort, Hong Kong researchers say they have finally overcome these challenges.
They argue that the secret behind their success is the use of 3D light detection and range riders rather than traditional cameras and sensors.
Lidar data says it is being fed to onboard computers that use information to provide a continuous two-orbit strategy to plot the robot’s flight path in real time. The two trajectories provide the option to take the safest route for exploratory routes. The software on the computer moves two trajectories to provide the optimal path.
A demonstration of thin object avoidance. (a) (i-IV) experiments used four thin wires of various diameters. (b) (i toiv) Time-lapse image capturing the flight of the DJI Mavic3. We successfully avoided thin wires with a diameter of 30 mm, but were unable to avoid small wires. (c) (i to iv) Time-lapse images capturing flights of the Super. I successfully avoided all four types of thin wires. (d) Super Point Cloud View when facing a thin 2.5 mm wire. The wires were seen in current scan measurements (white dots) and were more evident in accumulated point clouds (colored dots). Credit: University of Hong Kong
Tests showed that the Super could safely fly obstacle courses at 20 meters per second. The research team also found that they could follow targets such as humans to pass through the forest and avoid forests, branches and other obstacles. They also found that it can work in low light conditions as it is based on Lidar.
The research team suggests that Super is a major advance in autonomous aviation robot technology. This can be used for search and rescue applications, but the most logical applications are law enforcement and military reconnaissance.
Details: Yunfan Ren et al, Mavs’ safe and fast navigation, Science Robotics (2025). doi:10.1126/scirobotics.ado6187
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