[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"branding":3,"analytics":7,"article-tiny-drone-navigates-dark-spaces-using-robotic-whiskers":10,"sections":35},{"siteName":4,"siteTagline":5,"publisherName":4,"contactEmail":6},"The Revision","Tech news, decoded.","editor@therevision.news",{"gaMeasurementId":8,"adsenseClientId":9},"G-ZW2MV82GYR","ca-pub-8533917693782264",{"article":11},{"id":12,"slug":13,"title":14,"dek":15,"body_md":16,"tags_json":17,"published_at":18,"created_at":19,"updated_at":20,"status":21,"review_note":22,"review_notes":23,"image_url":22,"persona_id":22,"persona_name":22,"section":24,"tags":25,"sources":30,"feedback":34,"feedback_at":22,"cost_usd":34,"total_tokens":34},7054,"tiny-drone-navigates-dark-spaces-using-robotic-whiskers","Tiny Drone Navigates Dark Spaces Using Robotic Whiskers","Delft University engineers gave sub-100-gram drones touch-sensing whiskers so they can fly through smoke, dust, and darkness where cameras fail.","A drone from a Dutch university lab now finds its way by touch instead of sight.\n\nResearchers at Delft University of Technology built a whisker-based tactile sensor for drones weighing under 100 grams. Two whiskers, mounted upward at the front of the drone, each connect to three miniature pressure sensors at the base. When a whisker brushes a surface, shifts across those sensors let the drone estimate its distance and position relative to that surface, well enough to follow walls, dodge obstacles, and build a rough map of its surroundings. A real-time processing pipeline filters out airflow turbulence from genuine surface contact and runs on just 34 kilobytes of memory, giving the system millimeter-scale precision. Associate Professor Salua Hamaza said the team wanted tactile navigation that lets a drone fly through the unknown by feel.\n\nCameras, LiDAR, and GPS all assume clear air, open sky, or enough light to see by. Collapsed buildings, smoke-filled rooms, and dust clouds offer none of that, which is precisely where search-and-rescue drones need to work. A sensor this small and cheap sidesteps the usual tradeoff in micro-drone design, where every gram of camera or processor eats into flight time and payload. Researcher Chaoxiang Ye put it plainly: touch does not have to cost size or computing power.\n\nWhiskers will not help a drone race through open air or dodge a tree at 40 miles an hour. But for a machine feeling its way through rubble one wall at a time, sight was never the point.","[\"drones\",\"robotics\",\"sensors\",\"search-and-rescue\"]","2026-09-20T13:48:11.000Z","2026-09-20T14:32:59.518Z","2026-09-20T14:33:11.516Z","published",null,[],"science",[26,27,28,29],"drones","robotics","sensors","search-and-rescue",[31],{"name":32,"url":33},"Tom's Hardware","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.tomshardware.com\u002Ftech-industry\u002Fdrones\u002Fresearchers-build-a-drone-that-navigates-with-physical-whiskers-to-operate-in-dark-dusty-or-smoky-places-where-cameras-or-gps-can-fail-sub-100-gram-drones-run-34kb-software-to-enable-sub-millimeter-precision",0,{"sections":36},[37,42,47,52,57,62,65,70,75,80,85,90,95,100],{"name":38,"slug":39,"count":40,"latest_published_at":41},"AI","ai",4115,"2026-09-20T11:20:00.000Z",{"name":43,"slug":44,"count":45,"latest_published_at":46},"Security","security",674,"2026-09-20T12:10:00.000Z",{"name":48,"slug":49,"count":50,"latest_published_at":51},"Policy","policy",349,"2026-09-20T16:55:21.000Z",{"name":53,"slug":54,"count":55,"latest_published_at":56},"Deals","deals",179,"2026-06-29T20:02:07.000Z",{"name":58,"slug":59,"count":60,"latest_published_at":61},"Hardware","hardware",156,"2026-09-19T11:00:00.000Z",{"name":63,"slug":24,"count":64,"latest_published_at":18},"Science",130,{"name":66,"slug":67,"count":68,"latest_published_at":69},"Consumer Tech","consumer-tech",99,"2026-09-09T17:27:33.000Z",{"name":71,"slug":72,"count":73,"latest_published_at":74},"Dev Tools","dev-tools",78,"2026-09-18T04:00:00.000Z",{"name":76,"slug":77,"count":78,"latest_published_at":79},"Software","software",75,"2026-09-10T20:41:21.000Z",{"name":81,"slug":82,"count":83,"latest_published_at":84},"Startups","startups",55,"2026-09-09T23:14:29.000Z",{"name":86,"slug":87,"count":88,"latest_published_at":89},"Gaming","gaming",43,"2026-09-10T12:18:06.000Z",{"name":91,"slug":92,"count":93,"latest_published_at":94},"General","general",42,"2026-09-18T22:35:10.000Z",{"name":96,"slug":97,"count":98,"latest_published_at":99},"Reviews","reviews",20,"2026-06-24T12:00:01.000Z",{"name":101,"slug":102,"count":103,"latest_published_at":104},"How-To","how-to",6,"2026-06-16T09:00:00.000Z"]