A team of researchers has developed a drone that flies autonomously using neuromorphic image processing and control based on the workings of animal brains. Animal brains use less data and energy compared to current deep neural networks running on GPUs . Neuromorphic processors are therefore very suitable for small drones because they don't need heavy and large hardware and batteries.
"The calculations performed by spiking neural networks are much simpler than those in standard deep neural networks.," says Jesse Hagenaars, PhD candidate and one of the authors of the article,"Whereas digital spiking neurons only need to add integers, standard neurons have to multiply and add floating point numbers. This makes spiking neural networks quicker and more energy efficient.
With its neuromorphic vision and control, the drone is able to fly at different speeds under varying light conditions, from dark to bright. It can even fly with flickering lights, which make the pixels in the neuromorphic camera send great numbers of signals to the network that are unrelated to motion."Importantly, our measurements confirm the potential of neuromorphic AI. The network runs on average between 274 and 1600 times per second.