Researchers build drone that navigates with physical whiskers

Researchers at Delft University of Technology equipped a sub-100-gram drone with tactile whiskers using three miniature pressure sensors at each base. The system detects obstacles and maps by touch, with the entire processing pipeline using 34 KB of memory.

• Sub-100-gram drone navigates using touch alone
• Each whisker connects to three miniature pressure sensors
• Algorithm separates turbulence from touch, runs on 34 KB
• System targets search-and-rescue in rubble