The Grasp lab of the university of Pennsylvania has small robothelikopters learned not only autonomous, but also in formation to fly. The researchers gave a demonstration with a swarm of twenty quadcopters.
The small helicopters with four rotors seem to be small versions of the Drone from Parrot, but are a lot smaller and fit in the palm of a hand. Details about the so-called uav’s are not known, but they can be very precisely controlled and high-speed move. Previously the quadcopters already deployed in teams to build a tower, and now the team from Penns Grasp Lab, the heli will also autonomously in formation flight.
Employees of the lab have developed a technique to a swarm of twenty robots in complex three-dimensional patterns and move quickly from pattern to change. Obstacles can automatically be avoided and a demonstration showed the robotici a formation quadcopters through a window and fly, and then the formation to recover. It is not known how the uavs communicate with each other.
