UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Systems) have been getting people’s attention for the flexibility they offer, and it seems as if Exyn Technologies have achieved a new milestone in this arena. Exyn Technologies is an enterprise catering to the industry and defense sector through its autonomous drone technology. They have demonstrated the very first Level four autonomy in the UAV. The company has already excelled in three key industries: oil, gas, and infrastructure. The drones manufactured by the company function exceptionally well in complex terrains and GPS-denied environments, making them suitable for any ground conditions, where normal drone flying could prove almost impossible.
It is essential first to understand why UAVs are harder to control and achieve functional in autonomy. The land-based vehicles have structured roads that provide the vehicles a definite environment to venture into. In contrast, the UAVs work in three-dimensional spaces where instantaneous response is an unmissable feature for properly mapping and recy of the area.
Before this, Level four autonomy was seen only in land-based vehicles and expected next in driverless cars. With this new expedition of the organization, the UAVs are very well equipped to be in an accessible flight exploration mode where they can travel at a speed of two meters per second and collect the required data from the environment simultaneously. Environments that are cluttered and crowded make aerial flying an extremely tedious task that requires a high level of expertise, but if this solution does work in the way it claims to then, near to zero piloting expertise would be required. These systems would easily navigate places such as mines and other infrastructure seen as almost impenetrable.
Level 4 demonstrated by the organization is still in the testing mode, and the company is looking through even the tiniest of details. The complete industry wide-launch is expected anytime, but one may get to look at this piece of technology at work before that in the defense sector.
The organization at hand is already working towards creating Level 4B autonomy that would raise the bar even higher. This could allow them to collaborate with multi-robot systems and increase the usefulness of these autonomous systems manifolds. Level 5 of autonomy is a step further wherein the drone can have 100% control even in unbounded environments, and no input whatsoever is required from the human operator. In a nutshell, it starts to operate automatically, and that too with precision and efficiency. For autonomous systems, Level 5 is the absolute delight an engineer can reach at. That being said, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that it is an impossible task.
The company is currently working in full swing and is already making robots that can work in any condition and reduce operational risks. The company aims to implement this gift of technology now a step further and send these autonomous systems to gather details and work in unprecedented ways with unparalleled accuracy.
Source: https://www.exyn.com/news/exyn-drones-achieve-autonomy-level-4
Amreen Bawa is a consulting intern at MarktechPost. Along with pursuing BA Hons in Social Sciences from Panjab University, Chandigarh, she is also a keen learner and writer, having special interest in the application and scope of artificial intelligence in various facets of life.
