Tiny autonomous drones could soon navigate through darkness, dust and smoke using artificial whiskers inspired by animals.
Tiny autonomous drones could soon navigate through darkness, dust and smoke using artificial whiskers inspired by animals. Their small size limits the use of large or heavy sensors for navigation. That's why researchers from TU Delft have developed a lightweight whisker-based tactile sensor that enables drones to navigate and explore their surroundings through gentle touch. The study was recently published in Nature Communications.
Navigating complex environments is a fundamental skill for autonomous robots. However, drones weighing less than 100 grams face severe constraints in terms of sensing, computing power and energy. Conventional sensors like cameras, LiDAR, or rangefinders are often too heavy and become unreliable in low-visibility environments such as smoke-filled buildings, or caves. To address this, Dr. Salua Hamaza and her team developed a lightweight and low-latency tactile perception framework that enables vision-independent navigation.
Inspired by Rodent Whiskers
Mounted at the front of a tiny drone, a pair of artificial whiskers inspired by rodent vibrissae provides continuous feedback about the environment during contact. Unlike previous contact-based systems, which often rely on larger drones equipped with robotic arms or mechanical bumpers, this approach enables active, real-time tactile sensing onboard a tiny flying robot, using touch as its primary sensing modality.
Read More: Delft University of Technology
Image: Drone researchers at Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands) Salua Hamaza & Chaoxiang Ye with their whiskered drone (Credit: Delft University of Technology - Studio Oostrum)
