DRONEon episode 8...
The subject is Obstacle avoidance. I was reminded about this feature as the Kobe Bryant crash on Sunday January 26 killed all nine aboard a Sikorsky S-76B aircraft.If I had to do a quick list of advances in consumer drones, I would split them into generations. We're probably in the 4th generation. The 1st generation had simple drones. The 2nd generation added camera drones. The 3rd generation added drones with GPS and had detection on landing where the drone would stop it's descent if it sensed the terrain were higher than where it initially started from.
The latest generation of drones have obstacle detection from the front, rear and below. If you steer one of these drones into some trees, it will halt at a distance established in the avoidance setup menu. Let's say, 10 feet is the setting and you are moving toward a building, the drone will stop at 10 feet away of any unknown obstacle.
Once technology like this was only available on drones costing a few thousand and now the feature is standard on drones down to the $500 price range.
Kobe's multi-million dollar Sikorsky didn't have any obstacle avoidance equipment, nor did it have a 'black box' flight recorder. Regarding the crash, there are several different stories but the official report probably won't be released for 12 to 18 months.
The pilot flew in foggy conditions that were so bad, several police departments in the area grounded their helicopter operations.