Scientists from Boston have come up with a way to move drones without navigation maps
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have proposed their solution to improve the performance of autonomous vehicles. They developed a technology called MapLite. It does not require pre-loaded navigation charts to use it. The drone equipped with MapLite is powered by LiDar and GPS sensors. GPS is used for general positioning, and scanning laser lidars are needed for detailed analysis of the environment in real time. Thus, the system can pave the way in heavy traffic conditions and on roads with poor coverage. The technology looks promising, but it is still under development and is far from perfect. The project was developed by Boston scientists together with the Toyota carmaker, which provided all the necessary conditions for testing the innovation. The researchers attach the greatest importance to LiDar sensors. They generate a point cloud of the surrounding landscape and highlight flat areas suitable for movement. After that, the system draws two lines: one roughly indicates the direction of movement, the other determines a detailed trajectory between two points, taking into account the characteristics of the track. When the car approaches the end of this path, a new map is generated on the fly. Quick change of maps and their accuracy allow the drone to move independently even on those roads that are not marked on the maps. Before self-driving cars become commonplace on the road, there are many challenges for engineers to solve. Researchers at MIT are currently working to improve how their technology determines the height and slope of road sections. In any case, MapLite and similar projects have the potential to dramatically improve existing navigation systems. Moreover, they will allow drones to be launched outside the urban environment and even used in uninhabited areas without any infrastructure. The Topic of Article: Scientists from Boston have come up with a way to move drones without navigation maps. |
