Scientists equip drone with neuromorphic chip

American scientists have equipped a drone with a so-called neuromorphic processor. The chip received data from various sensors mounted on the drone to get an impression of the spaces in which the drone flew.

The 100 gram drone was equipped with a prototype chip containing 576 silicon ‘neurons’. The processor was connected to the drone’s optical, ultrasonic and infrared sensors, and scientists then piloted the plane through three different rooms. It concerned a neuromorphic processor: a chip whose functioning is modeled on the functioning of the brain.

Each time the drone entered a new room, it created a unique pattern of electrical activity in the chip’s neurons, based on the incoming sensor data about walls, furniture and other objects. Because no such activity had occurred in the processor before, the chip could deduce that it was in a new environment. Based on the pattern formed, the processor was further able to recognize that it was flying in a space where it had been before.

There are no practical applications for the experiment yet, but according to the researchers it is an empirical test of ideas about the functioning of neuromorphic processors. “It shows that it is possible to literally learn on the fly when we were very limited in weight, size and consumption,” Narayan Srinivasa of HRL’s Center for Neural & Emergent Systems told MIT’s Technology Review. HRL’s chip weighed 18 grams and consumed 50mW.

The experiment was part of a research project into the possibilities of neuromorphic processors from Darpa, the research division of the US defense department. Srinivasa expects that these kinds of chips will enable intelligent applications in combination with the sensors in cars, airplanes and other systems.