A research team at the University of Pennsylvania has successfully
demonstrated close formation work among large networked groups of
autonomous vehicles, and the results are visually captivating.
The SWARMS project
(Swarms of Autonomous Robots and Mobile Sensors) involves a team from
the university's general robotics, automation, sensing and perception
lab.
Work there on autonomous multicopters has led to demonstrations of
the vehicles performing obstacle navigation and precise maneuvering
while flying in large formations and operating as a group of networked
autonomous vehicles. In plain English, you'll want to watch all 16 of
them autonomously fly a cross-over figure eight pattern at 1:22 in the
video.
The goals of the project are to understand swarming behaviors in nature
and identify models for swarm behavior in large networked groups of
autonomous vehicles.
The research could lead to the development of
engineered systems equipped with multi-vehicle sensing and control to
carry out missions with the ability to respond as a group to high-level
commands. It aims to determine if groups of autonomous vehicles can
function effectively in a hostile environment without one master unit
(leader) and with limited communications between its elements. Such a
group could potentially include individual members that could
dynamically change roles to better adapt to a dynamic environment in
pursuit of an objective. Seeing is believing:
Source:
Avweb
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