The ability to avoid collisions is crucial to animals and insects that live in environments with many obstacles. The Lund researchers’ results show that insects, such as the green orchid bee in the Panama rainforests, apply a strategy where they assess the light intensity to navigate quickly and effectively without crashing. They are guided by the intensity of the light that penetrates the holes in leaves to determine whether a particular hole is sufficiently large for them to fly through safely without hitting the edges.
Baird said: “The system is ideal for adapting to small, light-weight robots, such as drones. My guess is that this will become a reality within five to ten years.”
Before it is realised, the biological results from the rainforest must be transformed into mathematical models and digital systems that make it possible for robots to fly in complicated environments completely without human intervention.
“Really, the coolest thing is the fact that insects have developed simple strategies to cope with difficult problems for which engineers have still to come up with a solution,” Baird added.
