I was wondering, sorry if its a noob question - if it has GPS tracking integration, and maps etc.. cant we "mod" sort of obstacle avoidance/crash prevention feature using GPS/Map details? so GPS will tell drone where it should "avoid" ?
Thanks!
The UAV would have to have some kind of dynamic sensing mechanism (eg, optical, LiDaR, IR, sonar, combination, etc.) building a localized mapping of the surroundings as well as some kind of obstacle avoidance strategy programmed.
Having a hi-res point-cloud map streamed to the UAV of the UAVs immediate surroundings would not suffice even with the UAV running an intelligent avoidance algorithm if only civilian GPS was used due to accuracy typically being off by 1-3 meters (best case).
UAV on-board sensor [or sensor arrays] with obstacle avoidance programming is used successfully, with both the location of the UAV and the obstacle(s) determined using means other than GPS only for more accuracy,
You can read about the strategy and methods successfully employed by the Anafi Ai's obstacle avoidance for a good real-world example:
How does ANAFI Ai’s obstacle avoidance work?
If one wanted to "retrofit" a UAV to have reasonable dynamic obstacle avoidance, the simplest way would be to use sonar transponders like Polaroid rangefinders for example attached to the UAV, feeding obstacle information into a control board and programmaticaly using the sensor data to avoid obstacles, like so:
Polaroid Ultrasonic Range Sensor Used for Obstacle Avoidance
Hope that gives you more of a clear idea of how it would be done quite well.