Drones are pretty big these days in the news, and hence it is no surprise to see more and more effort being put into the development of drones as well as the kind of technology that they carry. For instance, it has been reliably reported that Swiss researchers have come up with a new kind of rescue drone that is capable of recognizing and following passageways, even if those happen to be littered with thick undergrowth as well as rough terrain, and to do so autonomously – all thanks to a form of complex artificial intelligence. The ultimate gal? To have a whole fleet of rescue drones “swarm forests in search of missing people”, assisting human rescue teams along the way.
Davide Scaramuzza, who led the project for the Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence and the University of Zurich, shared, “While drones flying at high altitudes are already being used commercially, drones cannot yet fly autonomously in complex environments, such as dense forests. In these environments, any little error may result in a crash, and robots need a powerful brain in order to make sense of the complex world around them.”
This is not the first instance where there is such a drone in existence, as there was another attempt in which we reported on late last year. As for this new breed of quadrocopter, it will ultimately be deployed rapidly in large numbers in order to complement human rescue teams while reducing response time, as the drone falls back on the likes of small cameras and unique software to get the job done. You can check out a video of the drone in action here.
Filed in . Read more about Drones. Source: washingtontimes