Enhancing optical-flow-based control by learning visual appearance cues for flying robots

Guido C. H. E. de Croon, Christophe De Wagter, Tobias Seidl

Abstract: Autonomous flight is challenging for small flying robots, given the limited space for sensors and on-board processing capabilities, but a promising approach is to mimic optical-flow-based strategies of flying insects. A new development improves this technique, enabling smoother landings and better obstacle avoidance, by giving robots the ability to learn to estimate distances to objects by their visual appearance.