---
title: "Watch This Drone Expertly Dodge a Careening Soccer Ball"
description: "  A team of engineers at the University of Zurich have developed technology that allows a drone to dodge obstacles, including basketballs flung at high speeds. Their research was detailed in a paper published in the journal Science Robotics on Wednesday. The researchers’ obstacle avoidance system is fast enough to get out of dodge if […]"
date: "2020-03-20"
modified: "2020-03-20"
authors:
  - name: "Victor Tangermann"
    job_title: "Senior Editor"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/drone-dodge-careening-basketballs"
categories:
  - "Drones"
  - "Robotics"
  - "Robots and Machines"
tags:
  - "drones"
  - "quadcopter"
  - "the digest"
---

# Watch This Drone Expertly Dodge a Careening Soccer Ball

![A team of engineers have developed technology that allows a drone to dodge obstacles, including basketballs flung at high speeds.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/watch-this-drone-expertly-play-a-game-of-dodgeball.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: UZH\</em\>*

## Ball Hard

A team of engineers at the University of Zurich have developed tech that allows a drone to dodge obstacles, including basketballs flung at high speeds.

The researchers' obstacle avoidance system is fast enough to get out of Dodge — [get it](<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/get_out_of_Dodge>)? — if an obstacle is fast approaching. According to the team, conventional avoidance systems are too slow.

https://youtu.be/BzykucxFddI

## Bold Strategy, Cotton

To get there, the system uses event cameras. Event cameras don't spend time looking at every pixel at any point in time, like a conventional camera.

The special sensors' individual pixels only respond when they notice any changes in light intensity. That means there's far fewer pixels to analyze in a given scene, speeding up processing considerably.

## Dodgeball

The results are certainly good enough for a 21st-century game of dodgeball.

"Our ultimate goal is to make one day autonomous drones navigate as good \[sic\] as human drone pilots," lead author Davide Falanga [told *New Atlas*](<https://newatlas.com/drones/drone-dodgeball-obstacle-detection-system/>).

"If we could have autonomous drones navigate as reliable as human pilots we would then be able to use them for \[search and rescue\] missions that fall beyond line of sight or beyond the reach of the remote control," Falanga added.

**READ MORE:** [Drone plays dodgeball to demo fast new obstacle detection system](<https://newatlas.com/drones/drone-dodgeball-obstacle-detection-system/>) \[*New Atlas*\]

**More on drones:** *[Spanish Police Using Drones to Yell at People Breaking Quarantine](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/spanish-police-drones-yell-breaking-quarantine>)*

## Author
I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/vtanger.bsky.social>)