Week 6

Swarming Flying Robots

TED Robots that fly.and Cooperate
http://www.ted.com/talks/vijay_kumar_robots_that_fly_and_cooperate

Swarming Flying Robots:
Vijay Kumar, from the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science, has
developed 4 rotored flying robots that can fly as a group, and maybe someday swarm. He works
specifically on designing flying robots with bioinspired algorithms for collective behavior and swarms. He
would like to send these swarms inside buildings as first responders, as builders, to transport cargo, and
even as precision farmers. Swarms of robots could be sent into buildings after earthquakes to search for
people, or into radioactive buildings too dangerous for people. As first responders, a swarm is an
advantage as only one is needed to find a person, the others that start in the swarm may be destroyed
along the way. For construction, the flying robots are small so many are needed to lift multiple objects
and to build and fly in formation. They are able to fly in formation by just keeping track of the spacing of
their neighbors.
A different robot swarm project in Switzerland used algorithms to test different methods of search
operations by swarms of flying robots. They researched different search patterns and different
launching methods of the robot swarms. They also designated two different types of robots in the
swarm, the explorer and the beacon. In their study they found different strategies to coordinate the
flying swarm of robots.
One project run by Vijay Kumar is SWARMS, Scalable sWarms of Autonomous Robots and Mobile
Sensors Project. Areas of artificial intelligence, robotics, biology, and systems engineering are together
working on swarming behavior and application of this biological inspiration. They want to determine if a
swarm of robots could enter a nonfriendly situation where they have no leader, may need to change
roles, have limited communication with each other, and can still respond as a group.

Inspiration from nature:
Swarming in the air and schooling in the sea are both flocking behavior. Flocking, as defined by Iain
Cauzin, is when the action of in individual becomes the behavior of the group. Flocking is seen in locust,
honeybees, many birds, herds of buffalo and wildebeest, and in schools of fish such as the golden
shiners. The Blue jack mackerel will school into a bait ball, which confuses its predators. Bees and ants
can swarm when it is time to move out and find a new home. The starling will flock to make amazing
flying displays called murmurations. For each of these, the individual has no plan, but as a flock or
swarm they have a new identity. The simple individuals can now be a part of complex operations as a
group. Scientists have been trying to figure out the why of this collective behavior for over 100 years.

Does society win?
This technology of swarming flying robots is certainly a win for search and rescue operations. The swarm
could do a search fast and more complete than humans could, and without putting more people in
danger.

Bioinspired technology
This is an example of bioinspiration. It builds from the concepts of flocking with swarms of and schools
of fish. It has different applications and purposes (search and rescue, building, transportation) than a
swarm or flock in nature (protection, migration, food gathering).

References:
1. Yong, E. How the science of swarms can help cancer and predict the future Wired. March, 19,
2013. http://www.wired.com/2013/03/powers-of-swarms/all/
2. Vijay Kumar Lab http://www.kumarrobotics.org/
3. SWARMS, Scalable sWarms of Autonomous Robots and Mobile Sensors Project
http://swarms.org/
4. Stirling, T., Wischmann, S., Floreano, D. Energy-efficient indoor search by swarms of simulated
flying robots without global information Swarm Intell (2010) 4:117-143.
http://download.springer.com/static/pdf/660/art%253A10.1007%252Fs11721-010-0039-
3.pdf?auth66=1406422130_a7cbf25cca1fb71b92db6a785776c314&ext=.pdf