We‘ve seen quadrocopter drones do some amazing stunts in the last couple of years. Everything from synchronised acrobatic pieces featuring up to twenty of the flying drones, to automatically navigating through some basic obstacles. That is most often their problem, obstacles. We humans are as adept as piloting these nippy machines as they are at doing themselves, and sometimes we don‘t put them together as well as we should.
ETH Zurich’s Mark Mueller is tackling the problem of having propellers come loose in flight in part due to human error. He is doing it through a new failsafe algorithm that gives these flying robots a better chance of survival.
As you’ll see in a video demo after the break, the software automatically compensates for rotor failures, bringing a drone back to its original position before giving the owner an opportunity to land the craft. Mueller’s routine works even when there’s just one propeller left and it could eventually avoid dangerous objects on the way down. It really is something to behold.
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