In the near future, drones will handle deliveries and also be a regular part of rescue missions. But as long as they need a human operator, they cannot become the 24x7 aid we would want them to be. Researchers at the University of Zurich have developed a new algorithm that allows drones to not only fly autonomously but faster than those controlled by human racing pilots. This will herald a new future, where drones can simply be given the drop destination and they will handle the rest.

Not only are drones great at flying and reaching a destination quickly, but they can also be used to navigate through tough trails like a window in a rescue mission or mountain top for surveillance. So far, skilled drone pilots have been entrusted with such tough missions, but with an increasing number of applications where drones are used, finding skilled pilots for all applications is going to get tougher. Add to this the limitations of the battery packs, drones are expected to move quickly than they are today to improve delivery efficiencies.

Under the guidance of Davide Scaramuzza, the head of the Robotics and Perception Group at the University of Zurich, researchers Phillipp Foehn and Angel Romero used a novel method that allows drones to autonomously determine their flight path. So far, drones have been given a full description of their flight path that has been previously determined by human users. This is not a time-efficient method. Instead, the researchers simply directed the drones to pass through the waypoints in the flight path. The algorithm helps the drone calculate a time-efficient path which also takes into account the limitations of the drone's capabilities, a quadcopter in this instance.