SWITZERLAND: Swiss scientists have developed a network of unmanned aerial vehicles designed to flock like birds in a coordinated effort to gather information from the sky

Record ID: 401811

  • Title: SWITZERLAND: Swiss scientists have developed a network of unmanned aerial vehicles designed to flock like birds in a coordinated effort to gather information from the sky
  • Date: 22nd December 2011
  • Summary: LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND (RECENT) (REUTERS) STUDENTS AT THE LABORATORY OF INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS, EPFL, LAUSANNE VARGA LOOKING AT ALGORITHM ON LAPTOP VARIOUS OF A SWINGLET AIRCRAFT ON HER DESK ALGORITHM ON LAPTOP (SOUNDBITE) (English) PROFESSOR DARIO FLOREANO, SWISS FEDERAL POLYTECHNIC OF LAUSANNE SAYING: "One of the beautiful things of the system we came up with is that y
  • Embargoed: 6th January 2012 12:00
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  • Location: Switzerland, Switzerland
  • Country: Switzerland
  • Topics: Science
  • Reuters ID: LVA8DCKBMV9R82R599VLFQYIFF23
  • Story Text: Robots mimicking the flight of flocks of birds are taking to the skies in Switzerland, equipped with technology to map and track.
    The winged machines are called swinglet CAMs, ready-to-deploy mini drones that carry a range of payloads from pollution sensors to high-resolution cameras.
    They were developed by Swiss start-up company Sensefly, and commissioned for further development by scientists at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale's Laboratory of Intelligence Systems (EPFL).
    Although flocking was developed in 1986, the scientists in Lausanne are currently perfecting programming to enable the cyber birds to migrate and land in a set location.
    The artificial intelligence incorporated in the Sensefly autopilot continuously analyses data and takes care of all the aspects of flying. Even in the absence of radio connection with the user's laptop, the Sensefly autopilot will safely accomplish the mission.
    The user can control the trajectory of the swinglet, which has a wingspan of just 80 centimetres, both before and during flight. With simple 'drag and drop' actions they can update the flight plan, and with a mouse click can trigger the taking of photographs.
    Thanks to its autonomous take-off and landing, operating the swinglet and its camera is easy.
    "What we have got here is a number of flying robots that can flock in the sky completely autonomously. They can cover a preset area. You simply decide which area they have to fly over and they would go, they would take off, cover this area, take photographs, they can monitor air pollution or other type of measurements you want to take and they make sure they stay in contact, they don't collide with each other and when the mission is over they come back to the position where you launched them," said Professor Dario Floreano, of the Swiss Federal Polytechnic of Lausanne.
    Professor Floreano's team has tested the robots more than 200 times in the field with a flock of up to ten aircraft.
    They have demonstrated that flying robots can take off and land together, using WiFi to communicate, and can record information, including photos and monitoring air pollution.
    Computer simulations show flocking of up to 100 Micro-Air Vehicles, with the algorithm methods used as a computer graphics tool.
    "These planes could be equipped with antennas and one of the purposes of developing the system indeed is to deploy these flying vehicles in the air so they can create an ad hoc network so people on the ground can talk over dedicated band so that they don't rely on GSM or traditional means of communication."
    The robots use a WiFi dongle which talks to an on-board computer that runs the autopilot program.
    "Every plane is a node and basically they connect over the wireless network and they are sending messages to other agents in the network and the messages contain their heading and their GPS position," explained Maja Varga, a research student working on the project.
    Individual swinglet CAMs can be bought direct from Sensefly for around 10,000 US dollars. The purchase includes a James Bond-style leather case for the spy in a hurry.
    Critics may argue that the swinglet is another staging post on the 21st Century's gradual erosion of the privacy of the individual, but its supporters believe it will provide a variety of benefits, including vast improvements to mapping technology, increased ability to monitor wild life, and atmospheric sampling.
    Professor Floreano hopes to add different kinds of sensors to the birds, like cameras modelled on the eyes of insects, to allow the flock to stay together without crashing into other objects.
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