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Posts Tagged ‘swarms’

The test, which was announced last weekend although it took place in July, teamed two ScanEagle drones with a Procerus Unicorn from Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory. The aircraft communicated using a mobile ad hoc network and swarm technology developed at APL, according to Boeing.

The aircraft worked together to search a test area, mapping terrain and generating waypoints while sending information to teams on the ground.

Autonomous aircraft working together isn’t new — we’ve seen several cool examples, from quadcopters working together to build towers, to boomerang ‘bots collaborating to scan disaster areas. This project is unique because it integrates two disparate types of aircraft, which is likely to be necessary if drone swarms are ever called up for duty.

In a disaster area or war zone, if drones are present at all, odds are pretty good that they won’t all be exactly the same, or they at least won’t have the same hardware. Swarms of these unrelated drones would need some common communications system in order to work together. Ideally, drone swarms could improve response times, by letting drones work out the most efficient routes and sorties amongst themselves. JHU’s swarming technology is designed to do just that — and reduce human pilot requirements.

Gabriel Santander, Boeing’s Advanced Autonomous Networks program director, said it was a “milestone in UAV flight.” More tests are planned for next month, according to Boeing.

The test, which was announced last weekend although it took place in July, teamed two ScanEagle drones with a Procerus Unicorn from Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory. The aircraft communicated using a mobile ad hoc network and swarm technology developed at APL, according to Boeing.

The aircraft worked together to search a test area, mapping terrain and generating waypoints while sending information to teams on the ground.

Autonomous aircraft working together isn’t new — we’ve seen several cool examples, from quadcopters working together to build towers, to boomerang ‘bots collaborating to scan disaster areas. This project is unique because it integrates two disparate types of aircraft, which is likely to be necessary if drone swarms are ever called up for duty.

In a disaster area or war zone, if drones are present at all, odds are pretty good that they won’t all be exactly the same, or they at least won’t have the same hardware. Swarms of these unrelated drones would need some common communications system in order to work together. Ideally, drone swarms could improve response times, by letting drones work out the most efficient routes and sorties amongst themselves. JHU’s swarming technology is designed to do just that — and reduce human pilot requirements.

Gabriel Santander, Boeing’s Advanced Autonomous Networks program director, said it was a “milestone in UAV flight.” More tests are planned for next month, according to Boeing.

For starters, a handful of “eye-bots” reconnoiters the area, establishing where things are and--most importantly for this task--the location of a book that Swarmanoid has been instructed to retrieve. Then the rest of the system swings into action. A team of “foot-bots” figure the best way to get to the book and set up a communication network linking the whole system from its point of origin to the location of the book.

Then two “foot-bots” attach themselves to the “hand-bot” and tow it to the book, which is perched on a shelf above floor level. Will Swarmanoid succeed in its mission? We wouldn’t spoil the thrilling climax after all this build-up. Video below.

[New Scientist]

Small drones are useful in disaster situations because they can fly over rough terrain and communicate easily, but if they’re going to catch on, they must be simple to design and use, according to the EPFL Intelligent Systems Laboratory.

Students built 1-pound plastic foam microdrones with 31-inch wingspans and outfitted them with electric motors, a Linux-based processor, GPS and a WiFi dongle. Then they had to design swarm algorithms.

First, the researchers used artificial evolution models to uncover unique control mechanisms, and reverse-engineered their findings. Then they turned to one of evolution’s best-studied social systems: Ants.

As the project’s Web site explains, the creatures deploy to search for and maintain pheromone paths that lead them to food. This behavior can be an analogue for deploying communication networks that would help rescuers, the researchers say.

Before being launched into the air Frisbee-style, the robots perform a self-check and calibrate themselves. They are monitored and controlled through a swarm interface running on a laptop.

To test their new system, students took 10 drones into a field overlooking Mount Blanc and watched them swarm. Check it out below.

[via Makezine]

The belt is made of an ultra-light nanowire mesh, patented at MIT, that can absorb up to 20 times its weight in oil. Its hydrophobic properties deflect water while sucking up various forms of pollution. The nanowire's inventors have compared it to a paper towel for oil spills.

The belt attaches to a yellow “head” covered in photovoltaic panels, according to its designers, based at MIT’s Senseable City Lab. As the robot moves head-first through the water, the conveyor belt sucks up oil, which is squeezed out into the head. As the clean part of the belt emerges from the head, the process starts over.

Seaswarm robots are intended to work as a fleet, hence the name. The robots would communicate via GPS and WiFi networks to coordinate clean-up, and they would not require human involvement, unlike current ocean skimmers. They are just 16 feet long by seven feet wide, so they would be able to access coastlines, marshes and estuaries, unlike current skimmers that attach to boats.

The design team tested their prototype in Boston’s Charles River this month and they say the conveyor belt easily adapted to the surface waves.

The robot works by detecting the edge of a spill and moving inward until it has removed the oil, the project's Web site says. Because the robot's head consumes the oil, the robot does not need to make repeated trips back to shore, making it a much more efficient cleaner.

Working out of Switzerland's École Polytechnique Fédérale in Lausanne, Kovac's mechanism uses two needles mounted to the front of a small glider or robo-copter. When extended, the 'bot can fly straight into the surface it intends for its perch--no additional landing maneuver's necessary. When it's time to take off again, an electric motor and gearbox connected to the needles pulls them out, and flight resumes. Kovac claims the needles work on a variety of different surfaces, including concrete and wood. The whole assembly weighs just 4.6 grams.

What would you do with a swarm of lightweight, autonomous, sensor-laden flying robots? That's the question currently being considered by countless government agencies, research institutions, Bond supervillains--everyone--as miniature robotics systems continue their march onwards.