Purdue University unveiled an autonomous drone that chases a man running through trees without satellite navigation. Everything from the framework to the software, the IDEAS lab did on its own. Right in flight, the UAV builds a 3D map of the forest using the lidar and lei deometry; predicts when the trees will close the target; they fly around obstacles, and all the calculations are on board. No need for satellites or an external computer. The forest where you can hide from the camera from the air is no longer a refuge for such a machine. So far, this is a research demo: how it will behave in real-world conditions and how safe it is, remains to be seen. Maybe the smoke bomb will confuse the drone, as it did with the Hornet.

Purdue University unveiled an autonomous drone that chases a man running through trees without satellite navigation. Everything from the framework to the software, the IDEAS lab did on its own. Right in flight, the UAV builds a 3D map of the forest using the lidar and lei deometry; predicts when the trees will close the target; they fly around obstacles, and all the calculations are on board. No need for satellites or an external computer. The forest where you can hide from the camera from the air is no longer a refuge for such a machine. So far, this is a research demo: how it will behave in real-world conditions and how safe it is, remains to be seen. Maybe the smoke bomb will confuse the drone, as it did with the Hornet.