New chip could help tiny robots traverse complex environments
Researchers combined an efficient algorithm with dedicated hardware to rapidly generate 3D maps for navigation using minimal memory and power. Gleanmer is a new system that can construct detailed 3D maps of a robot's environment at high speed while operating at extremely low power. The advance could enable tiny devices to avoid obstacles and safely navigate in the real world.
Key Takeaways
- Adam Zewe | MIT News Publication Date : June 23, 2026 Press Inquiries Press Contact : Abby Abazorius Email: abbya@mit.
edu MIT News Office : A new chip developed by MIT researchers could help tiny, low-power robots avoid obstacles as they navigate around tight corners inside an industrial HVAC system to check for gas leaks.
- A robot could use such a map to plan a collision-free path to reach its goal.
Typically, generating such thorough maps requires power-hungry systems and a great deal of memory to build and store 3D representations of the obstacles in a robot's environment.
- "This paper showcases a key example of how you can leverage co-design of the algorithm and hardware to really push energy efficiency.
While there has been a lot of work looking into compact 3D maps, what stands out about this work is that it also ensures that the process to generate those maps is as efficient as possible.
- The work was recently presented at the IEEE Very Large-Scale Integrated Circuits Symposium.
A more compact map For a robot, generating a 3D map that includes the obstacles in its environment usually demands a lot of power because it must store images captured by its camera, and process all the 3D pixels in each image multiple times.
- Mapping obstacles and free space with voxels typically consumes a lot of memory, which makes traditional methods power-hungry.
Gleanmer is a new system that can construct detailed 3D maps of a robot's environment at high speed while operating at extremely low power. The advance could enable tiny devices to avoid obstacles and safely navigate in the real world. Researchers combined an efficient algorithm with dedicated hardware to rapidly generate 3D maps for navigation using minimal memory and power.
Adam Zewe | MIT News Publication Date : June 23, 2026 Press Inquiries Press Contact : Abby Abazorius Email: abbya@mit. edu MIT News Office : A new chip developed by MIT researchers could help tiny, low-power robots avoid obstacles as they navigate around tight corners inside an industrial HVAC system to check for gas leaks. Credits : Credit: iStock Previous image Next image A new chip developed by MIT researchers could help tiny, low-power UAVs avoid obstacles as they zip around tight corners inside an industrial HVAC system to check for gas leaks.
The chip allows small autonomous robots and other battery-limited devices to construct detailed 3D maps of their environments in real-time using only about as much power as a single LED. A robot could use such a map to plan a collision-free path to reach its goal. Typically, generating such thorough maps requires power-hungry systems and a great deal of memory to build and store 3D representations of the obstacles in a robot's environment.
For more details please read the original article at MIT News AI.
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