Posted on 10/19/2015 12:28:36 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Why We Need Swarms Of Autonomous Drones
by ClaudiaR
12/10/2015
Most drones fly high above the terrain, connected to their human operators, alone, one by one for now. The main beneficiary of this semi-unmanned technology has been the army so far. Fly alone, identify the target, controlled from the center the get the green light to launch the missile.
The autonomous drone of the future are independent and no longer alone, instead, fly and swim in groups. Just like locusts, we’ll have swarms of drones, communicating to each other and surrounding environment, like a mobile network of connected robots.
Passed The “Idea” Stage, We Are Developing
US Navy has a program called UAV Swarming Technology (Locust) where is developing unmanned autonomous drones that can be launched from a cannon and “swarm” in a co-ordinated attack. These autonomous drones fly in formation and overwhelm the adversary. Locust system can be deployed from ships, aircraft or land vehicles.
The Naval Postgraduate College also has an active project called “Explore Defensive Swarming Strategies to Counter UAVs “live-fly experiments involving 50 versus 50 UAVs”.
Researchers at the University of Ganz Artificial Life Laboratory in Austria are running the world’s largest underwater autonomous swarm of drones called “CoCoRo”.
(Excerpt) Read more at wtvox.com ...
Skynet, anyone?
I can see where they might help with search and rescue, although there are intangibles there that humans will have a hard time programming into a drone but would spot in an instant which might make humans more effective, in spite of the downsides of fatigue, discouragement, and distraction.
Unfortunately, as with many other technologies, I can also see where this could be turned against a populace and used to impose totalitarianism as never before. Add the common criminal potential for drug smuggling, and a host of other activities, and this is some potentially dangerous stuff.
Save
I was just on a webinar where they were talking about using drones and sensors for large engineering projects. Drones (or swarms on large projects) with LIDAR to measure things down to a few centimeters. And then feedback to 3D virtual reality blueprints. Fly it every night and make sure everything is where it is supposed to be. Pretty cool stuff.
Safety things would have sensors on equipment and personnel to alert both when in proximity (not drones).
I would think flying drones with lidar and thermal would be a good way to find buried IED’s. Would need to fly things often.
I do see good there, especially in a military context. The problems I see come from people using them otherwise. Call it the Dark Side, every technology has one.
Yep. And as some believe (even some computing geniuses), the computer/robot/drone artificial intellegence could end up being a real bad thing. Especially once you give the robot a 3D printer and it can replicate/modify itself!
T-1
Once a government has a new piece of equipment or a new technology they always end up using it against their own citizens.
As the technology advances and they become more common and less costly they could follow the path of laptop computers.
Used laptops that were recently high end purchases are now cluttering the shelves at pawn shops and being hawked at a fraction of new cost by neighborhood geeks at yard sales, sidewalk kiosks and pop-up retail stores.
Some of them aren't even hot.
There will be always drones with nice features which are not available at affordable price. There would be also those general public are prohibited to own. They would make good targets. Unlikes many high-end hardware of today, which are mostly stationary and protected in hardened secure locations, these things fly around. It gives perps more chance to capture them.
BKMK
I’ve always thought that putting up a web of thousands of very inexpensive ($1000) drones or even hydrogen-fueled balloons with a single titanium metal rod as the payload would be a good idea as defensive measure. One of those sucked into a engine = goodbye 150,000,000$ and an expensive pilot.
This weekend I went skeet shooting. Shot a box of 130 and feel the pain from my trusty old 12 gauge.
However, the clay pidgins follow a certain path each time they are launched and it’s pretty predictable what “lead angle” you need to figure to hit them.
Now, this “swarms of drones” really interest me. They would make really realistic targets since they move about in all quadrants and would give me the opportunity to really hone my shooting skills to the max.
BRING THEM ON!
DroneDefender Is An Anti-Drone Death Ray That Can Shoot UAVs Out Of The Sky With Radio Waves
Our President has been good at killing in the video mode. I wonder if this would make killing, and committed to killing easier.
The horrors of war, as witnessed by the guys on the ground, should be a deterrent to war—war as a last resort.
When the guys in Las Vegas can control swarms of drones over a country a world away, the killing happens without the horror. That is not good.
Plus, I would prefer not to have my speed clocked by a drone driven by some knucklehead civil servant. I don’t want the cops looking over the fence around my pool to watch my daughters in their swim suits.
Drones are coming and there is nothing we can do to stop their encroachment on our lives.
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