The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is looking to develop algorithms that would allow small, fast unmanned air vehicles to operate in cluttered environments without the aid of GPS or external communications.
A broad agency announcement issued on 22 December says in situations such as natural disasters – when UAVs are relied on to provide surveillance in buildings because it is too dangerous for humans to enter – a UAV needs to be able to navigate a “labyrinth of rooms, stairways and corridors”.
DARPA is not looking to develop a new UAV through the Fast Lightweight Autonomy (FLA) programme, the agency says – just the applicable algorithms.
The agency is looking for algorithms and software that would allow a UAV to fly through an open window at 20m/s (45mph) into “complex indoor spaces” without having to be controlled by external operators or through using GPS waypoints.
This, DARPA says, would enhance future unmanned capabilities, reducing processing power, communications and human intervention for low level UAV tasks.
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