As part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Fast Lightweight Autonomy (FLA) program, DARPA recently set up a series of tests to discover the capability of a smaller scale of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV).
The goal of the FLA program is to develop algorithms that would reduce the amount of processing power each unmanned UAV needs to function in the field, while simultaneously increasing the capabilities of each UAV.
“We’re excited that we were able to validate the airspeed goal during this first-flight data collection,” Mark Micire, DARPA program manager, said. “The fact that some teams also demonstrated basic autonomous flight ahead of schedule was an added bonus. The challenge for the teams now is to advance the algorithms and onboard computational efficiency to extend the UAVs’ perception range and compensate for the vehicles’ mass to make extremely tight turns and abrupt maneuvers at high speeds.”
Higher-level UAV technology could lead to huge advances in disaster response. Smaller UAVs like those in the FLA program could allow first responders access to collapsed building or otherwise hazardous environments that would’ve been impossible to reach before.
“Very lightweight UAVs exist today that are agile and can fly faster than 20 meters per second, but they can’t carry the sensors and computation to fly autonomously in cluttered environments,” Micire said. “And large UAVs exist that can fly high and fast with heavy computing payloads and sensors on board. What makes the FLA program so challenging is finding the sweetspot of a small size, weight and power air vehicle with limited onboard computing power to perform a complex mission completely autonomously.”