Drones Armed With 'Insect Vision' Can Fly Independently

Insects can teach us a trick or two about navigating through dense vegetation. Researchers have applied their lessons to a new system that can be applied to flying robots.

It was a revolutionary discovery arrived at by scientists from Lund University, Sweden. Looking at the world through the eyes of an insect makes drones adjust their speed to their surroundings and fly on their own with no human interference or management.

One inspiring ability learnt from insects and animals is the ability to avoid collisions and obstacles. However, it was just recently that it helped scientists to learn from and exploit the ability in order take forward bio-inspired drones.

For instance, bees flying through dense forests can judge the intensity of light so that they can avoid other objects and find some passages in the vegetation that can help them to remain in safe zones.

"The system is so simple - it's highly likely that other animals also use light in this way. The system is ideal for adapting to small, lightweight robots, such as drones," said Emily Baird, co-researcher from Department of Biology at Lund University. "My guess is that this will become a reality within five to ten years."

Baird and her colleague Marie Dacke find that insects, such as the green orchid bee in Panama rainforests, used a strategy that helped them to arrive at the degree of light intensity so that they could navigate effectively. Light helps them to fly through holes in leaves, once the light tells them whether or not they could avoid colliding with the sides.

Such biological results gathered from the rainforests needs to be transferred to mathematical models and digital systems, after which it would enable robots to fly in complex environments.

"Using light to navigate in complex environments is a universal strategy that can be applied to both animals and machines to detect openings and get through them safely," Baird added. "Really, the coolest thing is the fact that insects have developed simple strategies to cope with difficult problems for which engineers have still to come up with a solution."

Their study was published in the April 6, 2016, issue of the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.