Getting Small UAVs To Imitate Human Pilots Flying Through Dense Forests

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Getting Small UAVs To Imitate Human Pilots Flying Through Dense Forests

Posted by timothy on Thursday November 15, 2012 @07:06AM from the on-earth-as-it-is-on-endor dept.

New submitter diabolicalrobot writes "The Robotics Institute at CMU has been developing systems to learn from humans. Using a Machine Learning class of techniques called Imitation Learning our group has developed AI software for a small commercially available off-the-shelf ARdrone to autonomously fly through the dense trees for over 3.4 km in experimental runs. We are also developing methods to do longer range planning with such purely vision-guided UAVs. Such technology has a lot of potential impact for surveillance, search and rescue and allowing UAVs to safely share airspace with manned airspace."

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Cropdusters? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-15 07:11 · Score: 0

This could save lives!
1. Re:Cropdusters? by durrr · 2012-11-15 07:27 · Score: 2
  
  It could, however I don't see what part of screaming your final prayers is so hard to teach to a UAV?
2. Re:Cropdusters? by Antipater · 2012-11-15 08:00 · Score: 1
  
  Well, before the UAV can pray, they have to give it a soul. I hear that's pretty difficult.
  
  --
  Everything is better with chainsaws.
3. Re:Cropdusters? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-15 08:14 · Score: 0
  
  Not at all. We have a turn-key solution for Autonomous Control Systems, with our newly released Soul Module.
  It is written in an obsolete language, and has a partially documented (and occasionally conflicting) API. Available on a yearly subscription.
4. Re:Cropdusters? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-15 08:16 · Score: 0
  
  Just give it shoes!
  ... Puns are not has fun in text.
5. Re:Cropdusters? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-15 08:40 · Score: 1
  
  Oblig
  http://xkcd.com/413/
6. Re:Cropdusters? by TheLink · 2012-11-15 14:57 · Score: 1
  
  It should be easy to give it a soul- if humans have souls, many animals are likely to have souls too. The difficult bits are ethical and cost.
  --
  
  Too many replies beneath your current threshold
Coming Soon... by JonahsDad · 2012-11-15 07:20 · Score: 4, Funny

To the second moon of Endor.
1. Re:Coming Soon... by diabolicalrobot · 2012-11-15 08:47 · Score: 1
  
  We are on it too http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oO_Ohp1pHBw
2. Re:Coming Soon... by JonahsDad · 2012-11-15 08:59 · Score: 1
  
  Nice to know you guys have a proper sense of humor. Of course, given that your video predates my comment by a couple of months, I should probably have been modded redundant. I'll give myself a break since the link wasn't directly accessible from any of the links in TFS.
3. Re:Coming Soon... by SeaFox · 2012-11-15 10:55 · Score: 2
  
  Sadly the chase scene was exactly what popped to mind when I read the title as well.
Thought by Sparticus789 · 2012-11-15 07:21 · Score: 1

Perhaps I should port the source code into Battlefield 3 so I don't crash the helicopter all the time.

--
sudo make me a sandwich
Don't kid yourself by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-15 07:23 · Score: 0

> Such technology has a lot of potential impact for surveillance, search and rescue...
and killing people.
I never went into robotic vision because nearly all of the immediate applications are military.
1. Re:Don't kid yourself by Jeng · 2012-11-15 08:02 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Violence is just the low hanging fruit of applying robotic vision, well low hanging fruit that pays very well.
  There are many applications for this, whether it helps a computer to guide a blind person though a crowded lobby, allowing a driverless car to be safer and more efficient, or even warning you that your car is about to be hit by another car.
  
  --
  Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
2. Re:Don't kid yourself by Baloroth · 2012-11-15 08:14 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  I never went into robotic vision because nearly all of the immediate applications are military.
  Just like radar, and jet engines and rockets and spaceflight and GPS and encryption and antibiotics, yet all those things turned out to be slightly beneficial (or more than slightly, in the case of... all of them) to humanity as a whole.
  
  --
  "None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
3. Re:Don't kid yourself by kelemvor4 · 2012-11-15 08:20 · Score: 1
  
  > Such technology has a lot of potential impact for surveillance, search and rescue...
  and killing people.
  I never went into robotic vision because nearly all of the immediate applications are military.
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNPJMk2fgJU
4. Re:Don't kid yourself by Githaron · 2012-11-15 08:26 · Score: 1
  
  all of the immediate applications are military.
  That is only true because that is where most of the funding it probably coming from. Computer vision has huge potential outside the military. Computer vision is not the first massively useful technology that came out efficiently killing people and it will not be the last. Hell, most of the first seeds of the computer, electronics, and internet industries were planted because of the military.
5. Re:Don't kid yourself by stewart4t2 · 2012-11-15 12:07 · Score: 1
  
  *tinfoil*
  
  Robotic vision is one of that last main things that is keeping us from real, functioning, war fighting robots. Do we want the military to have this first?
  
  Obviously, true intelligence will be the final step in our Terminator style demise.
  
  */tinfoil*
1984 is old hat... by harvey+the+nerd · 2012-11-15 07:24 · Score: 0

Armed with a small LED or lasers to paint targets for small missiles, it could allow principals, police and govt agency personnel to eliminate offenders in whatever act.
1. Re:1984 is old hat... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-15 07:59 · Score: 0
  
  Armed with a small LED or lasers to paint targets for small missiles, it could allow principals, police and govt agency personnel to eliminate offenders in whatever act.
  Humans will always be one step ahead of such tech, because humans can
  adapt more rapidly than the tech.
  If you don't believe this ask any prison guard. In prison, the guards have eight hours
  to make sure the prisoners behave, whereas the prisoners have 24 hours in which to
  find ways to circumvent the methods used by the guards.
  A determined human will always prevail, no matter what you geeks imagine.
2. Re:1984 is old hat... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-15 08:16 · Score: 0
  
  I would probably be more worried about the police having access to heavy weapons like missiles than I would be about the drone targeting those weapons.
3. Re:1984 is old hat... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-15 08:17 · Score: 0
  
  On the other hand, most prisoners do not escape...
4. Re:1984 is old hat... by PPH · 2012-11-15 08:29 · Score: 1
  
  They're still working on the "guard in the tower with the scoped .30-06" problem.
  
  --
  Have gnu, will travel.
5. Re:1984 is old hat... by Githaron · 2012-11-15 09:05 · Score: 2
  
  Armed with a small LED or lasers to paint targets for small missiles, it could allow principals, police and govt agency personnel to eliminate offenders in whatever act.
  Or they could just make cats very happy before they die in a fiery explosion.
6. Re:1984 is old hat... by Jeng · 2012-11-15 10:18 · Score: 1
  
  Yes, because once they escape they then have to evade arrest for the rest of their lives. Not an easy task.
  
  --
  Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
Heh by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-15 07:24 · Score: 0

From the summary 'Such technology has a lot of potential impact "
-- MyLongNickName (Slashdot again won't let me stay logged in)
That's easy by TheUglyAmerican · 2012-11-15 07:25 · Score: -1

Duhhh, human pilot don't fly through dense forests so all the UAV needs to do is nothing.

--
"Written on the pages is the answer to the never ending story..."
Flight Videos (direct link) by diabolicalrobot · 2012-11-15 07:29 · Score: 5, Informative

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wfZB0NfMHJM http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=hNsP6-K3Hn4
They don't need to imitate humans by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-15 07:29 · Score: 0

They need to imitate birds. Duh.
1. Re:They don't need to imitate humans by Russ1642 · 2012-11-15 07:51 · Score: 1
  
  I've seen the onboard videos of goshawks flying through the woods. If humans could do that they'd have to take an industrial strength anti-emetic beforehand.
2. Re:They don't need to imitate humans by camperdave · 2012-11-15 08:30 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Link, or Star Wars Version.
  
  --
  When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
3. Re:They don't need to imitate humans by icoderaven · 2012-11-15 08:31 · Score: 1
  
  They need to imitate birds. Duh.
  Probably why the project is called BIRD.
4. Re:They don't need to imitate humans by icoderaven · 2012-11-15 08:37 · Score: 1
  
  There's yet another Star Wars version
5. Re:They don't need to imitate humans by voidphoenix · 2012-11-15 09:43 · Score: 1
  
  Birds probably really really suck at piloting drones.
  
  --
  Excuse me, wtf r u doin?
Gives a whole new meaning... by srussia · 2012-11-15 07:31 · Score: 3, Funny

to the most common aviation accident:
CFIT (human) = Controlled Flight Into Terrain
CFIT (Machine) = Controlled Flight Into Tree

--
Set your phasers on "funky"!
(Slashdot again won't let me stay logged in) by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-15 07:44 · Score: 0

It's called a cookie. TAKE THE COOKIE!
1. Re:(Slashdot again won't let me stay logged in) by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-15 07:57 · Score: 0
  
  Cookies are enabled. I've had miscellaneous periods where any time I switch subdomains on slashdot, Slashdot decides I've logged out.
2. Re:(Slashdot again won't let me stay logged in) by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-17 12:54 · Score: 0
  
  and the comments slider is buggy as shit as well.
BOOM! by Massacrifice · 2012-11-15 07:45 · Score: 1

a lot of potential impact for surveillance
Nothing that a shotgun can't fix. Yet.

--
-- Home is where you eat your heart out.
1. Re:BOOM! by kelemvor4 · 2012-11-15 08:24 · Score: 1
  
  a lot of potential impact for surveillance
  Nothing that a shotgun can't fix. Yet.
  Yeah, but going to jail because you shot down a government owned drone probably isn't going to be worth it. It's not like they won't be able to see who shot it down, and exactly where/when. Heck, it might even shoot back! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNPJMk2fgJU
I want one for home use by ThorGod · 2012-11-15 08:11 · Score: 1

I want a drone that flies around my houses and fixes all the dren that I don't want to fix.
You know, broken light bulbs, empties the gutters, etc.

--
PS: I don't reply to ACs.
1. Re:I want one for home use by kelemvor4 · 2012-11-15 08:27 · Score: 2
  
  I want a drone that flies around my houses and fixes all the dren that I don't want to fix.
  You know, broken light bulbs, empties the gutters, etc.
  You can already program the ar.drone to fly a preset flight path... just attach a little shovel and have it fly around scooping the gutter daily, all you'd need to work out is how to properly apply the duct tape, and setup some type of charging station it could land on by its-self.
2. Re:I want one for home use by ThorGod · 2012-11-15 09:17 · Score: 1
  
  The point is something that is generally capable of whatever task.
  
  --
  PS: I don't reply to ACs.
3. Re:I want one for home use by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-15 09:21 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  Except since it learns by imitation it would probably just sit in front of your PC all day.
4. Re:I want one for home use by wonkey_monkey · 2012-11-15 10:38 · Score: 1
  
  Damn things won't come with batteries though.
  
  --
  systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
5. Re:I want one for home use by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-15 23:09 · Score: 0
  
  DRD's dont fly ;)
Bit34 by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-15 08:30 · Score: -1

server Crashes at death's door you to join the so on, FreeBSD went
yuo fAil 1t by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-15 08:37 · Score: -1

LUCK I''L FIND people already; I'm AT&T and berkeley users of NetBSD faster chip Project somewhere Similarly grisly getting together to house... pathetic. One common goal - with THOUSANDS of
Autonomous gutter clutter gutter? by bdwoolman · 2012-11-15 08:45 · Score: 1

Why can't we all just get a Looj?

--
"No fear. No envy. No meanness." Liam Clancy
because humans are so good... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-15 08:56 · Score: 0

...at flying through dense forests?
Why not have it imitate birds?
1. Re:because humans are so good... by Githaron · 2012-11-15 09:12 · Score: 1
  
  Because birds are not big enough to not carry explosive payloads or turrents.
oblig. by viperidaenz · 2012-11-15 10:13 · Score: 0

I for one welcome our multi-rotored overlords.
How it does with horizontal features? by scdeimos · 2012-11-15 15:00 · Score: 1

In the real world a UAV will need to deal with horizontal features like power lines, fences and fence rails - all things that trip up human aviators far too often. The first video in TFA showed it using the increasing horizontal (left-right) velocity of picture elements to correlate with something vertical like a tree approaching the monocular camera, but ended abruptly as the AR.Drone was approaching a wooden fence. I would have really liked to have seen it deal with that fence as well, say by momentarily increasing its altitude to clear it.
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1. Re:reply by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 00:37 · Score: 0
  
  Hey buddy: you have the wrong crowd. Most slashdotters have never touched a shovel before. They like to keep their hands clean. Try putting that in a forum for people who actually use more than their keyboards for a living.
Human pilots do what? by Tablizer · 2012-11-15 19:51 · Score: 1

Who flies through dense forests? If you want to imitate a typical human pilot caught in a forest, make the drone say:
"Aaaah, we're gonna diieee!"

--
Table-ized A.I.