20-gram ornithopter with stereoscopic vision independently bends around obstacles

The smallest fully autonomous flying robot in the world that can avoid collisions with obstacles without any external intervention has been created in the laboratory of miniature aircraft of the Delft Technical University (Netherlands). He does this with a stereoscopic vision system that weighs only four grams. The total weight of the device - twenty grams. Ornithopter, named DelFly Explorer , is able to hold in the air for up to nine minutes.



In addition to the two microcameras that provide stereo image, the DelFly Explorer uses gyroscopes and a barometer for spatial orientation. Now the ornithopter can only fly around the room at a given height, not bumping into obstacles. In the future, laboratory staff want to teach him to fly through door and window openings, so that his flight is not limited to one room. Although it is too early to talk about commercial use, scientists believe that in the future, such robots can be used to survey industrial facilities and installations, flying into the most hard-to-reach places.


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Last summer, the laboratory of miniature aircraft presented another development - the world's smallest autopilot for quadcopters. The autopilot card based on the ARM Cortex M3 MCU microcontroller, equipped with accelerometers, gyroscopes, a barometer, a magnetometer and GPS, measures only two by two centimeters and weighs 2.8 grams. This autopilot is part of a large project to create free and open drone Paparazzi .