Miniature Robotics in Flight using Swarm Algorithms

This swarm of autonomous flying robots is a research collaboration between the Micro Air Vehicle Lab (MAVLab) at TU Delft and financed by the Dutch Research Council (NWO). Associate Professor G.C.H.E. de Croon introduces swarm robotics as completely safe with the main challenge being the limited weight and energy of the robots. K.N. McGuire, a PhD candidate in the Swarm Exploration project further explains the use and composition of the robots in the video. The researchers created an algorithm for efficient navigation called " swarm bug algorithms". Multiple robots first fly off in different directions, and their flight path is illustrated by different colored lines to track their movement in a simulation. Instead of mapping the environment, they deal with obstacles during flight. When their batteries are at 60%, the robots fly back to a radio beacon at the ground station while avoiding obstacles and each other. The robots can carry an onboard camera to store images of the environment. It is programmed to have no map, no memory, and no GPS. The main application of drones is for exploration of unknown environments, focusing on search-and -rescue operations. Other uses for the swarm robotics include tracking goods in warehouses, and monitoring crops in greenhouses.