Intelligent Drone Swarms University of Houston

Image, public domain: CCO

University of Houston Team Working to Develop Intelligent Drone Swarms

by DRONELIFE Staff Writer Ian M. Crosby

The global increase in the use of low-cost drones has seen them leveraged in a wide range of applications, sometimes deployed in entire swarms. However, despite advancements within drone technology, swarm mechanics have remained largely the same. Though it is possible to fly large numbers of drones in synch, these swarms are preprogrammed by teams of animators and are refined with hours of computer simulations.

Aaron Becker, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Houston, is working to refine algorithms enabling the coordinated control of drone swarms based on the behavior of flocks of birds and schools of fish. “These movements are not pre-programmed but are based on local decisions by individual birds or fish,” said Becker, whose work is supported by the commitment of a $1.7 million…