MIT's SANDO plans drone routes around moving hazards, with 12 real flights
Researchers built a planner for drones in unknown, changing places such as search-and-rescue sites. It avoided every moving obstacle in 12 test flights.
MIT made a way for drones to plan safe paths when things around them move. It worked in 12 real flights. It is research, not something you can buy.
Hype check
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Why it matters
Drones that can dodge moving debris could help in search and rescue one day.
Skip: research, not a product.
The details
- Lead author Kota Kondo and colleagues published SANDO in IEEE Transactions on Robotics.
- It needs only an upper limit on how fast obstacles move, not a prediction of their paths.
- It builds a safe, time-changing corridor around tracked obstacles and finds the fastest path inside it.
- The collision guarantee holds only if obstacles stay under the assumed speed.
- In simulations it reached goals faster than several other systems. In 12 real flights it avoided all moving obstacles.
Receipts
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