Communications of the ACM
System Trains Drones to Fly Around Obstacles at High Speeds
The new algorithm didn't always keep a drone ahead of its competitor throughout the course. In some cases, it chose to slow a drone down to handle a tricky curve, or save its energy in order to speed up and ultimately overtake its rival.
The faster drones fly, the more unstable they become. At high speeds, their aerodynamics can be too complicated to predict, making crashes a common and often spectacular occurrence.
Now, aerospace engineers at Massachussets Institute of Technology (MIT) have devised an algorithm that helps drones find the fastest route around obstacles without crashing. The new algorithm combines simulations of a drone flying through a virtual obstacle course with data from experiments of a real drone flying through the same course in a physical space.
Researchers found that a drone trained with their algorithm flew through a simple obstacle course up to 20% faster than a drone trained on conventional planning algorithms.
From MIT News
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