
Self-flying drone dips, darts and dives through trees at 30 mph - hk__2
https://www.csail.mit.edu/drone_flies_through_forest_at_30_mph
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carb
The video is too stylized for me. I would love for a more steady camera
showcasing the drone avoiding obstacles as it flies around. The jump-cuts and
music detract from the cool tech I want to learn about.

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nkozyra
I just don't understand asking a human to run the camera drone.

Presumably there's more than one of these, have one follow and rely on the
pace drone for positioning.

It was pretty hard to watch, but really watching sensing and localization
applied in a 3D space is extremely cool.

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paulftw
maybe a camera drone would see the one in front as an obstacle and constantly
try to turn away from it :)

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Strilanc
Is... is the video intended to be a parody of something? It's like they took
two shots of a drone turning slightly to avoid a tree in the middle of a
field, and decided to hit it with a nuclear bomb of "MAKE IT FEEL MORE EPIC"
in editing.

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eljimmy
Yeah... I was expecting a drone to be weaving through a forest of trees. Not
flying towards a single tree and maneuvering around it.

Still cool, but that music and editing was over the top.

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kepano
I guess I was expecting something more like this goshawk flying through a
forest, but maybe it's too much to ask for :)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-_RHRAzUHM&start=100](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-_RHRAzUHM&start=100)

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nkurz
Kiwi birds too:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdUUx5FdySs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdUUx5FdySs)

(Caution: On topic, but saddest short animation ever made)

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jonyt
Fancy camera work, but the obstacle avoidance is not convincing. The drone
basically passes by one tree, and that's mostly it. Compare that to any bird
that lives its life in the brush. Human built flying machines are fast and can
carry huge loads but compared to animals we still lag far behind in control
and finesse.

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ratsimihah
So does the brain and AI. What, I'm off topic?

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peteflorence
For a comparison, check out Intel's video from earlier this year:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gj-5RNdUz3I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gj-5RNdUz3I)

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teekert
This is a very disappointing movie, it shows the drone dodging the same tree
(or just branch actually) over an over again, there is no indication of its
speed, it dodges only one obstacle every time before a cut/edit is done. Is
there a reason this was not tried in a forest (as the title would suggest)?

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AustinBGibbons
The insight into only needing the differentials in the next 10 meters makes a
load of sense and clearly worked.

Why is everyone hating on the video? I thought it was light-hearted and fun.

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justifier
yeah, only i wished the insight would have been an algo that determines the
necessary distance based on the drone's speed

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mmanfrin
Compare to humans:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MBW8zoZUR4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MBW8zoZUR4)

~~~
gherkin0
That's a little misleading: the video has a "do you want to see the crashes"
link:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgrvrD_GOvg&feature=iv&src_v...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgrvrD_GOvg&feature=iv&src_vid=1MBW8zoZUR4&annotation_id=annotation_103248233)

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the8472
I'm sure the autonomous drone had a bunch of crashes too.

Flying with VR must be quite amazing anyway.

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ggambetta
I would describe that as "Drone dodges, ducks, dips, dives and... dodges".

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z2
The way the trees glow white in the plane view at 1:09 -- could they be using
near infrared cameras or filters to help specifically with tree detection?
Nowhere in the color video do the leaves look that bright. The paper doesn't
seem to mention it though.

[http://groups.csail.mit.edu/robotics-
center/public_papers/Ba...](http://groups.csail.mit.edu/robotics-
center/public_papers/Barry14a.pdf)

~~~
teraflop
It definitely looks like infrared to me. The paper mentions that they use a
pair of Point Grey Firefly MV cameras, and the reference manual for those
cameras[1] says that "in monochrome models, the IR filter is replaced with a
transparent piece of glass."

[1]:
[http://www.ptgrey.com/support/downloads/10116/](http://www.ptgrey.com/support/downloads/10116/)

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rrggrr
Im reminded of the movie Real Genius. This is most applicable as an autonomous
weapon. Unavoidable and its going to suck.

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rasz_pl
in case you are wondering: [http://groups.csail.mit.edu/robotics-
center/public_papers/Ba...](http://groups.csail.mit.edu/robotics-
center/public_papers/Barry15a.pdf)

20 watts, running on two ODROID-U3

~~~
bigiain
Now I've got no idea where the $1,700 comes from - I was assuming it was ~$100
worth of typical rc flying wing, with $1500+ worth of cameras and computers on
board...

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imauld
I wish I could be more excited about this but the most probable use for this
technology is making it easier for drones to spy on people or for cruise
missiles to be able to better fly into someone's window. :-(

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fpvracing
Very impressive. I wonder if this is the beginning of the end of FPV racing as
a sport?

If you're unsure what FPV racing is, see
[http://fpvracing.tv](http://fpvracing.tv)

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gloves
The sad thing about this is as the technology advances, the likely first
movers on this tech will be for military purposes.

Do enjoy what appears to be VR piloting at 1.28 however. First great useage of
it I have seen.

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tianlin-shi
I wonder how well this generalizes to other environments, especially cities
with dense blocks.

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MrBra
I instantly thought about Interstellar beginning scene...

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jlebrech
could it patrol the city for crime?

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kzhahou
This does go a long way to explaining speeder bikes -- the human rider
controls the gross movement, but the bike itself does obstacle avoidance.
Otherwise, there's no way a regular stormtrooper could fly those through the
thick forests of Endor.

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Houshalter
In video games, there are a lot of clever tricks they use to make the player
more likely to hit enemies. E.g. the cursor slows down when you get close to
an enemy, and bullets bend towards them. See this video:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UL1_ht1EdAU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UL1_ht1EdAU)

I wonder if tricks like these would work on real life vehicles.

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rasz_pl
>In video games

in console games

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thecatspaw
console games are video games too

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benplumley
I think the distinction was between console games and PC games, which don't
have auto-aim because the player is unlikely to be using a controller.

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chipsy
It's not a useful distinction since many kinds of games use player UX "cheats"
like slight warping to physics algorithms, RNG weighting, etc. Most of these
features act to take emphasis off of precise, low-level execution, or the pain
of a string of unlucky results, in favor of higher-level strategy concerns,
fast decision making, and expected values over time. There is an occasional
chorus of "simulation purism" from some folks, but really, simulation elements
are bulldozed in games constantly and consciously. The actual results are
subtle and people don't take much notice when rules are bent, they just
experience "fluid control" or "fair outcomes."

Auto-aim is only well-known because it's visually obvious when it occurs - the
gun did not point in the direction of the camera.

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dogma1138
The Navy really wants to get rid of pilots as it seems.

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agumonkey
> Barry’s realization was that, at the fast speeds ... the world simply does
> not change much ...

So is c the speed where nothing changes ? cold.

