Watch: Over 100 Micro-Drones Swarm in Formation

gCaptain ^ | January 13, 2017 | Mike Schuler

[Oatka]

The Pentagon has carried out what it is calling one of its most significant tests of autonomous systems under development by the Department of Defense with the demonstration of the world’s largest micro-drone swarms at China Lake, California.

[dangerdoc]

Depends on the fuel cells that have been developed in the lab.

Could be hours.

[polymuser]

Quads inside in formations:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YQIMGV5vtd4

[Garth Tater]

Could they fly a thousand miles and then drop a couple 1000 lb bombs on something? No? Then who cares?

Could they hang around air fields waiting to goop up the air intakes or damage the engines of planes flying a thousand miles to drop a couple 1000 lb bombs on something?

[PLMerite]

Drones! Why does it always have to be drones!

[BipolarBob]

Makes you wonder if drone swarms is what John saw when writing Revelations.

It does make one wonder.

[Oatka]

1) Get them to swarm - DONE.
2) Put a “stinger” in their tail - NOT SAYING.

If they could be made cheap enough, they could be rigged with proximity fuses and detonated when within close range of the target, they'd become smart ack-ack, so to speak.

At 1:50 in the video, things get pretty hairy. It reminded my of an old high-school lab movie showing an amoeba surrounding it prey.

If they ever became self-aware, they wouldn't want to be Kamikazes and maybe turn on their masters. :-)

[Covenantor]

how about them playing the James Bond theme?

https://youtu.be/1RmuPZiqoiw

[Darteaus94025]

...or put a sensor on each one to detect personnel/vehicles/buildings and target appropriately.

[Oatka]

Thanks, that was really neat - and impressive. I can see a whole new field in the military for that.

Here's annther neat one. Looks like YouTube is full of them, and warrants further viewing.

[Faith65]

bkmk

[Faith65]

Interesting comment.

[rpierce]

A must read if you're into this topic:

[HiJinx]

Batteries not Included!

[Gadsden1st]

Netflix Original...Black Mirror...Season 3: Episode 6

[Candor7]

Imagine them carrying 100 pop up land mines to drop as programmed, delayed or immediate.

Whew!

[Covenantor]

...If they ever became self-aware, they wouldn't want to be Kamikazes and maybe turn on their masters. :-)....

from that arises the question, does a "Skynet" become aware as a singular collective sentient entity or individual entities? As a singlar collective making assessments with the goal to preserve the whole, sacrificing individual units may be desirable. Much like an army.

[Daniel Ramsey]

Crowd control comes to mind here, especially large crowds.

I’ve seen the video, and what we see is just what they want us to see, its probably much more.

[USCG SimTech]

The movie “Enders Game” was more of a prediction than fiction.

[Oatka]

from that arises the question, does a "Skynet" become aware as a singular collective sentient entity or individual entities? As a singlar collective making assessments with the goal to preserve the whole, sacrificing individual units may be desirable. Much like an army.

From the article: “Due to the complex nature of combat, Perdix are not pre-programmed synchronized individuals, they are a collective organism, sharing one distributed brain for decision-making and adapting to each other like swarms in nature,” said Roper. “Because every Perdix communicates and collaborates with every other Perdix, the swarm has no leader and can gracefully adapt to drones entering or exiting the team.”

Sounds like a miniature Borg, but what if one drone becomes an independent thinker? :-)
This scene, from Woody Allen's "All you Wanted to Know About Sex" came to mind.

[Hot Tabasco]

Sporting clays comes to mind.....