[Avionics Today 05-02-2016] uAvionix, DJI and Stanford University are working together to develop sense-and-avoid technologies to help insure safe aircraft separation based on speed changes.
Eric Mueller, an aerospace engineer at NASA Ames Research Center, and Stanford professor Mykel Kochenderfer co-authored a paper the two are looking to bring to life, regarding how speed changes by agile multi-copters and small Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) can be used in addition to horizontal and vertical maneuvers to maintain safe operating distances between aircraft.
The Markov Decision Process (MDP) uses algorithms to model decision making, such as how an aircraft decides to maneuver to avoid oncoming traffic. MDP is applied in situations where some variables are possibly random, such as how another aircraft may decide to maneuver, and others are under the control of the decision maker, such as an aircraft's autopilot.
uAvionix supplied its miniature "ping" Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) hardware for tests at Stanford to determine the effectiveness of the-sense and-avoid algorithms under development. While DJI, maker of Phantom and Inspire drones, supplied aircraft for testing.