The group can lose or receive new members at any time

Aug 28, 2012 13:56 GMT  ·  By

A group of American researchers announces the creation of a new piece of software for future generations of flying robot swarms. The algorithms allow the machines to automatically adjust their formation, depending on whether new members are added or subtracted from the original group.

As demonstrated in the video above, removing one flying robot would force the others to react and change the pattern of their flight formation. While this task may seem simple to humans, making robots do it is not that easy.

The algorithms were developed by a collaboration of researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) Aerospace Robotics and Control Lab, and the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in Pasadena, California.

Pretty soon, we could expect to see swarms of surveillance, attack, or search&rescue UAV being outfitted with the new system, therefore increasing their respective performances.