Topic 2 About the Technology

1. The Technology

1.5. Collision Avoidance

One of the most important features to consider when choosing a drone for your business is its collision avoidance capability. The ability of an aircraft to analyse its environment during flight, identify danger, and alert or avoid obstacles or hazards is critical in any flight mission. This technology makes flying reliable and less likely to fail to cause property damage or injury. Depending on the model you deploy the amount of collision avoidance technology available will differ. Generally, your aircraft will identify any area of danger around structures or blocking vegetation. Some will alter their flight path during a mission if obstacles are encountered. Others will just alert the pilot when danger is close and prevent the craft from going too close to danger. In an emergency, most drones have a return to home feature the pilot can activate if required. This function would be dangerous to use if the pilot loses sight of the aircraft and needs to fly the craft home blind. The collision avoidance systems will alter course around obstacles without pilot intervention and return home safely.

To watch a video about a model drone with collision avoidance technology watch this.
Obstacle Sensing & Vision Positioning [2.48]

This avoidance technology comes in different forms. More advanced models have small optical sensor cameras that will detect and react to obstacles in flight. These are deployed on the front, back, top, and bottom of the craft to give a 360º view. More sophisticated implementations use these sensors to track and predict moving objects so they can change trajectories based on their likely next position. This technology is extremely helpful as it reduces a lot of the flying challenges particularly if you’re an inexperienced pilot.