A drone that gets around obstacles like an insect

Physics student Darius Merk has used an insect-inspired algorithm to develop a drone that can navigate around obstacles. His research could prove particularly useful in a natural disaster. How do you send a drone on a reconnaissance mission in a hard-to-reach area without it getting stuck in the rubble? The drone could of course be remotely controlled, but you could lose with the device if it went behind a wall. EPFL physics student and robot enthusiast Darius Merk has found another solution - one that is inspired by insects? vision and that he developed in EPFL's Laboratory of Intelligent Systems for his Master's project. The drone is completely autonomous and can detect obstacles in order to avoid a collision. Unlike human sight, the drone does not use stereoscopic vision to determine depth and distance. 'Using cameras to simulate the human eye requires a lot of computing power,' says Merk.