Expert human drone pilots have proven incredibly adept at piloting UAV through complex courses at high speeds which are still unmatched by autonomous systems. But researchers at the University of Zurich and Intel Labs are collaborating to change that, and their work, recently presented in the journal Science Robotics, could have far-reaching implications for the future of commercial drones.
“Autonomous navigation in environments where conditions are constantly changing is restricted to very low speeds,” explains Matthias Müller, Lead of Embodied AI Lab at Intel Labs. “This makes drones unable to operate efficiently in real-world situations where something unexpected may block their path and time matters.”
That’s obviously a big impediment to safely rolling out drones for commercial use. The solution seems to be harnessing the decision-making abilities of expert pilots to train drones to function autonomously.
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