Flying robot swarm (with video)

Bassem

From the article:

The flying robots were built out of expanded polypropylene with a single motor at the rear and two elevons (control surfaces that enable steering). The robots are equipped with autopilot to control altitude, airspeed and turn rate. A micro-controller operates using three sensors — a gyroscope and two pressure sensors. The robots also have a GPS module to log flight journeys.

The swarm controllers running Linux are connected to an off-the-shelf USB Wi-Fi dongle. The output of these (the desired turn rate, speed or altitude) is sent to the autopilot.

J4D

Nothing impressive really :) from my own experience with automated flying crafts, i can say that a true flying swarm is not possible until a new technology replaces GPS. GPS is not really accurate.and can be off by many meters. in car GPS units the software estimates and you are always placed on a road. but in real time live GPS feed its different. when such technology exists we will see drones flying in exquisite close formation :)

Padre

lol, GPS IS accurate ... just not to the common of mortals.

J4D

Padre wrotelol, GPS IS accurate ... just not to the common of mortals.

شو دخَل طُز بمرحبا
The point is can YOU get accurate results from GPS ?! NO !
The GPS system is maintained in the US, for the military it is highly accurate and works for high altitude as well. but for normal users its far from accurate to be used for formation flight or hovering.
the Chinese and the Europeans are working on such similar systems and promise gr8 accuracy. we will have to wait and see.

Bassem

Jad, can the robot's positioning be more accurate if they have infrared or bluetooth transmitters that relay their positions relative to each other in realtime?
This would be a close distance system, while the GPS handles the wider scale.
Is it something feasible? I have no idea.

Padre

you can eliminate the errors of GPS and get it really accurate if u have one fixed station.
As for computing position using infrared / bluetooth, i dont think it's feasable. doable, but since all the swarms are moving, computing positioning using their signal is overboard.

J4D

we got good results from the GPS by reducing its influence on the flight characteristics ;) now it is somewhat reasonable. As for the bluetooth/infrared thing i support padre's explanation.