The World's Smallest Autonomous Drone Takes Flight in Europe

Researchers from the University of Bologna and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (otherwise known as the ETH Zurich) claim to have engineered the world's smallest autonomous drone, according to a recent report. When it comes to the nano-drone industry, the primary focus of which is to build capable autonomous UAVs with the smallest, most lightweight batteries, this is a milestone. With a smaller battery comes a decrease in power and flight time. For nano-drones, which are defined by maximum four-inch diameters, developing a model somewhere in between these two poles has been a longtime struggle for engineers. The two teams of European researchers may have finally achieved that task, however, by reducing the power requirements of the drone by using a newly-developed processor that can efficiently run the autonomous, artificial intelligence-infused navigation required, according to Fast Company.