Researchers at the University of Zurich and the Delft University of Technology have used an event-driven image sensor to help a multi-rotor drone keep flying if a motor fails.

Researchers in Switzerland and the Netherlands have used event driven image sensors to improve the safety of a multi-rotor autonomous drone.

Once a motor fails, a drone can rotate uncontrollably, making navigation and stabilisation very difficult. Larger drones use GNSS satellite receivers to try to regain control of the system, but this is not practical for smaller aircraft.

“When one rotor fails, the drone begins to spin on itself like a ballerina,” said Davide Scaramuzza, head of the Robotics and Perception Group at UZH and of the Rescue Robotics Grand Challenge at NCCR Robotics, which funded the research. “This high-speed rotational motion causes standard controllers to fail unless the drone has access to very accurate position measurements.”

Instead, the technique developed by the researchers combine data from a standard camera with an event-driven camera sensor that only responds to changes in an image. These event driven, neuromorphic or spiking neural network sensors are being commercialised by companies such as Prophesee in France and Opteran in the UK. The team plans to release the technology as open source.

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