Flying robots that are not afraid of falls

One of the reasons why the Erlang language is so effective for building highly reliable large telecommunication systems is the principle of “let it crash”. Errors and falls are unavoidable, and instead of preventing them, it is better to make some parts of the system fall without affecting others, and restart easily. Due to such tolerance to errors of individual processes, high reliability of the system as a whole is achieved.

A similar approach was used by scientists from the laboratory of intellectual systems of the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne, when they created a prototype of a flying robot to work in difficult and dangerous conditions. Instead of building a complex collision avoidance navigation system, they simply protected the supporting rotors with a carbon-fiber frame and added a mechanism that allows the fallen and turned over robot to take off without help.



The source of inspiration for scientists was insects, which without any harm for themselves stumble upon obstacles, fall and take off again. Robots, arranged according to a similar principle, will be indispensable in conditions where confident navigation and trouble-free piloting are almost impossible - when examining debris, cramped and dark caves or mines. Robots built according to this scheme can be relatively “stupid” and “weak-sighted”, and at the same time be more effective than their more intelligent counterparts, especially from an economic point of view, because the carbon fiber frame is much cheaper than a complex system of sensors and navigation.
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