Honeycomb Drone Swarm Can Fly In Any Shape

I was browsing Stumbleupon and I found this cool article about drones that are design to fly in swarms.

These honeycomb-like drones use advanced networking technology to fly smoothly in large formations. Created as a teaching aid by researchers at ETH Zurich, the Distributed Flight Array consists of at least two modules, linked physically by magnets and electronically by push-pin connections.

By themselves they are unable to fly.

Curiously, a single unit cannot fly on its own. The torque from a single rotor is unbalanced, and sends the drone tumbling erratically. Once connected, the units all take off as one, using their rotors, and then fly level to the ground, with sensors providing information about inertia and altitude. A human pilot steers the formation with a joystick.

Source

reply to post by Phoenix267


That is pretty damned cool. I wonder if there is any way they could make them fly independant of one another. If they could, they would be fantastic surveyor drones, capable of splitting up mid air and floating off to different areas around a parcel of land, and probably be quite good for search and rescue, if properly equipped for either role.

reply to post by TrueBrit


That would be really awesome if they could do that. I wouldn't be surprised if they can easily convert one to make it fly on its own.

reply to post by Phoenix267


I also wonder how long they can stay aloft. I am a locksmith, but I also have an interest in perimeter security measures. With that in mind, I am wondering wether these could be used as mobile security drones, equipped with thermal imaging and night vision, to cover the times of the evening when businesses and domestic premises are at most threat of being broken into. Linked to a sensitive, sound activated alarm, programmed to recognise the sound of breaking glass, a door being forced, and so on, they could launch when activated by that system, and follow the suspects to thier car, or push bike, and back, potentially, to thier orgination point.

reply to post by TrueBrit



I was honestly thinking more along the lines of moving cargo/freight, if it's too heavy you simply slap a few more drones together until they can handle the weight.

These things are cool but the way they are designed at the moment I cannot see them doing much else, this was just an experiment so they could be designed to do anything. The technology of how they all work together is neat too, I could see similar things being used to create floating water platforms.

Thanks for posting this Op, it's some neat stuff

reply to post by TrueBrit


Further to your idea,

The idea I was thinking was that you place motion sensors around a perimeter, and have two or three pairs of these drones. When a sensor is activated, one pair drones is automatically sent to the target area, also automatically activating 2 screens (or one screen split in half) in the control room. The operator/security guard could then fly them around with different camera capabilities (mentioned in a previous post) to find the intruder. If there are two intruders, the pair split up and one drone can follow one guy etc.

Just a thought

Ace drones anyway, until they get used against us of course

Kaidan