The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) recently announced a new research finding that could extend the flight time of micro drones.
The research team has created a miniature drone the size of a Lego brick, consuming only one-thousandth the energy of a light bulb. They have also improved a chip that was small enough to fit inside the "nano-drone" last year; the optimized version is even smaller and more powerful.
MIT stated that this chip enables micro-drones to navigate in remote and inaccessible areas. Furthermore, the chip can process 171 frames of camera footage per second in real time, 5.7 times faster than the DJI Phantom 3's image processing speed.
Furthermore, this chip allows micro-drones to use inertia to measure their position in space. Of course, this chip isn't limited to micro-drones; it can also be used as a carrier for other micro-devices such as small robots.
As we all know, due to the limitations of device size, the battery life of micro-devices is a problem. If the battery life issue can be improved, it will solve a major problem for micro-devices. In addition, with the optimization of navigation, image processing and other capabilities, their application scenarios will be further broadened, such as rescue, exploration and so on.
