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A lightweight, quick thinking, autonomous drone has been unveiled that can dodge and dive its way around obstacles while flying at 30mph.

Created by computer scientists and artificial intelligence experts at MIT it's hoped the drone will help to create systems that can "fly quickly and navigate in the real world".


The 34-inch wingspan drone moves away from using sensors, like lidar, to sense what is around it. Instead the MIT drone uses an onboard computer, artificial intelligence, cameras and other equipment to build a real-time map of its surroundings.

For drone deliveries to become a reality UAVs need to be able to work their way around buildings, pedestrians, lampposts and anything else in their way. But as drones have started to become a mainstream reality there have been a number of incidents where they've crashed into objects around them.

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One crashed into a building in St. Louis, another smashed into a building in Manhattan, and another dumb drone hit electricity cables in Hollywood, causing a blackout.

MIT researchers hope their system will prove to be more durable.

MIT

"Operating at 120 frames per second, the software extracts depth information at a speed of 8.3 milliseconds per frame," MIT researcher Andrew Barry said in a blog post.


The drone looks 10 meters ahead constantly, and builds a map based on what it sees. Barry said that when the drone is travelling at high speeds it doesn't need to build up a detailed picture of what is close by as it's soon moved on.

For drones that travel at slower speeds there is a greater need to build a detailed pictures of what is near because in those situations other objects, such as people, are more likely to move into its path.

The new system comes at a cost, although not as much as you might expect; the team says it was built using off-the-shelf parts totally around £1,100. The next step for the MIT staff is to build a system that can navigate its way through more densely populated areas.