5 companies including Subaru succeed in autonomous collision avoidance of small unmanned aerial vehicles "drone" for the first time in the world Avoid collision with manned helicopter at relative speed of 200km / h

On November 8, Subaru, Japan Radio, Japan Avionics, ACSL, and Magellan Systems Japan used a small unmanned aerial vehicle and a manned helicopter to achieve a relative speed of 200 km/h. announced the world's first successful autonomous collision avoidance of a small unmanned aerial vehicle in the region.

In the test conducted from September 9th to 10th in the wide airspace of Minamisoma City, Fukushima Prefecture, a 10kg class unmanned aircraft and a manned helicopter were operated at a relative speed of 200km/h (unmanned aircraft: 50km/h, manned Helicopter: 150 km/h) was tested by approaching from each front direction.

　Unmanned aerial vehicles are equipped with sensors that are miniaturized and have low power consumption. Based on the detection data of various sensors, a collision avoidance route is generated in real time, and the unmanned aircraft follows this avoidance route. Confirmed that the aircraft made an autonomous avoidance flight. It was also confirmed that the unmanned aerial vehicle would return to its original flight path after avoiding the manned helicopter.

　The world's first successful autonomous collision avoidance test of an unmanned aerial vehicle at a relative speed of 200 km/h, which is the actual operating speed range, and this success is a major step forward for the social implementation of small unmanned aerial vehicles. .

　Small unmanned aerial vehicles, commonly called "drones", and medium-sized unmanned aerial vehicles, which are slightly larger than drones and can be equipped with larger sensors, are already being used in fields such as agriculture. In addition, there are great expectations for applications such as transportation of goods in the event of a disaster, search for victims, and distribution infrastructure, and the number of operations is increasing.

　However, collision avoidance technology has become an urgent issue for safe use, as evidenced by near-miss examples of unmanned aircraft and manned aircraft such as doctor helicopters being reported in Japan. In addition, collision avoidance technology is indispensable for the realization of "flight beyond visual line of sight" and "flying over third parties", which are required for the practical use of unmanned aerial vehicles. Going forward, the five companies will utilize these results to establish a collision avoidance system and strive to promote the social implementation of unmanned aerial vehicles.