Artificial Intelligence

New Drone Tracks Human Through Forest With No GPS

Is this a breakthrough for rescue missions, are more field tests required or the star of a warrantless surveillance machine?

2 hours ago·Updated 1 hour ago

New Drone Tracks Human Through Forest With No GPS

Story

Above: A stock photo of a drone flying over a mountain. Image credit: Ian Usher/Unsplash

The Facts

Aniket Bera, a Purdue associate professor of computer science, posted a 44-second video on LinkedIn Friday showing an autonomous drone tracking a person through a forest with no GPS and no prior map, writing that his IDEAS Lab built every layer from scratch.
Aniket Bera on LinkedIn
DroneXL.co
The drone needs no GPS or cloud connection, and its obstacle-avoidance computing runs on-chip. It builds a 3D map of its surroundings in flight using LiDAR, which developers say lets it weave beneath tree canopies without collisions.
Vaibhav Sisinty on X
AGTP on X
The drone compares camera images with inertial sensor data to estimate its own movement rather than relying on fixed coordinates. A prediction module estimates where the person will reappear when trees briefly block the camera, Bera said.
Aniket Bera on LinkedIn
UkrMediaNews
The video's overlay labels the motion planner SUPER and the altitude estimate FAST-LIO, open-source packages from the University of Hong Kong's MaRS Lab, DroneXL reported. Bera later said the key planning and perception algorithms were built in-house.
Aniket Bera on LinkedIn
DroneXL.co
Purdue announced Nov. 26 that the Army Research Laboratory had awarded Bera's lab a five-year, $1.5 million agreement covering air and ground robots that map and navigate terrain without GPS, a capability sought where signals are jammed or unavailable.
UkrMediaNews
DroneXL.co
Two reposts of the clip on X drew more than 1.7 million combined views, and replies generally split over whether the system suits search and rescue or surveillance. The lab has not published full test results, specifications or a release date.
DroneXL.co
UkrMediaNews
AGTP on X

Sources Split

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The Spin

Techno-optimist narrative

GPS-free autonomous flight is the kind of breakthrough that turns a lost hiker into a found one. Drone-as-first-responder programs already prove the point — eyes overhead before boots on the ground mean calmer scenes, fewer bad assumptions and officers who know what's waiting. Fearing the tech instead of funding it leaves responders flying blind.

Vertical Magazine

DroneXL.co

Techno-skeptic narrative

Current search-and-rescue drone algorithms show a severe reality gap: almost 90% of models rely solely on idealized simulations that ignore communication denial, sensor noise, dynamic survivors and crewed-aircraft deconfliction. Limited battery life, payload, and GPS-denied performance further constrain real operations. Hardware-in-the-loop and field trials remain essential before the systems are technologically sound for reliable use.

MDPI

Sciencedirect

Cynical narrative

Autonomous tracking that locks onto a person and hunts through forest serves manhunts, not hikers, and the eager buyers are police and governments with little patience for warrants. Rubber-stamped waivers already put AI eyes over rooftops, backyards and apartment windows with no public vote and barely a flight log. Privacy shouldn't vanish because surveillance got cheaper.

Truthout

Dr Red Bison on X