A drone that autonomously avoids collisions with 'invisible barrier' even if you build a flight with multiple aircraft

With 300 droneStar-Spangled Banner in the night sky of Lady Gaga's showIf you can realize flight of the drones safely, such as drawing, the range of usage of drone will further expand. However, it is anticipated that flying multiple drones at the same time is difficult to manage, and it is anticipated that other drones will be damaged in a chain when collision occurs, but the Georgia Institute of Technology is drawn by "invisible barrier" We developed a technology to avoid conflict between each other.

Virtual Top Hats Allow Swarming Robots to Fly in Tight Formation
http://www.news.gatech.edu/2017/05/15/virtual-top-hats-allow-swarming-robots-fly-tight-formation

You can see how the drones that actually formed the formation avoiding the collision can be seen from the following movies.

Quadcopters swarm safely in tight formation - YouTube


A plurality of drone flying in formation flights are entangled with each other when the propeller approaches too much ......


There is a danger of falling.


However, when researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology turned on the collision avoidance function of the drone, the drone waiting at the side of the four drones that spin round and fly ... ...


Even if you cross the four drone flying, each drone takes avoidance action before colliding. As a result, while four drones continue rotating flight, they can avoid colliding with a drone traversing between them. In addition, when the drones approach each other, temporarily raise the flying speed and make rapid avoidance.



In formation flight, the drones fall down is not just contact. If more than one drone is flying with height difference ... ...


The drone flying under the drone cuts the air flow generated by the propeller on the upper drone, so it may fall as turbulence without touching it.


So Georgia Institute of Technology made it possible to control the drones not to fly under the drone by covering the drones with a 2 foot (about 60 cm) "invisible hat". This allows us not only to suddenly approach each drones but also to fly more than one drone safely without being crashed by turbulence produced by drone.


These drone also has an algorithm that can change flights during flight, and one pilot can control five flights. This technology is part of research to control a larger robot team, Eglestead Director of Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines (IRIM) said, "Our sky is delivered and agriculture · It will be full of autonomous robots used for search and rescue, etc. That's why we need technology that allows one person to control dozens of robots at once. "