Chinese engineers developed drones that fly in a BlackMirror-like swarm [VIDEO]

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(Yuman Gao and Rui Jin / Science Robotics)

Chinese engineers taught a swarm of drones to move through the forest. They made the drones fly through bamboo thickets as an example.

The drones constantly exchange information and fly as a single unit, but at the same time they can slightly deviate from the general trajectory if there is an obstacle in the way.

Small multicopters are valuable on their own, but if you combine them into a swarm, you can use it to quickly and efficiently solve various tasks over a large area.

The military is especially interested in swarms of drones, which are already testing them for reconnaissance.

The operation of even a single drone is not so simple and requires advanced algorithms for tracking objects and replanning the trajectory on the fly.

Also, in the case of a swarm, both the likelihood of drones colliding with each other and the fact that they must deviate are added to these difficulties

However, at the same time the drones should not get too far out of the group at a risk of getting lost.

Now a team of engineers from Zhejiang University has developed a new drone and a method that allows them to fly as a swarm.

The algorithm receives a target or sequence of targets from the user and it plans a trajectory to move towards it/them.

In addition to the location goal, the algorithm has other goals:

follow the shortest flight time
deviations from the given route
remain in a swarm shape, and
avoid obstacles in the way

At the same time, the weight of each parameter can be different, for example, it is maximum for obstacles, because a collision with them will most likely lead to the end of the flight.

During the flight, the drones use visual-inertial navigation: data from the camera, the accelerometer and the gyroscope. They also build a 3D map of the area in real time.

Since a swarm is made up of several non-GPS drones at once, errors can accumulate in their navigation readings, which can lead to a collision.

In order to avoid this, as well as maintain a given swarm shape, engineers built UWB transceivers into them, giving the drones relatively accurate relative position data.

The small vehicles are built on the design of a quadrocopter and are equipped with powerful electronics: