US Navy Researchers Get Drones To Swarm On Target 99
coondoggie writes: The Office of Naval Research today said it had successfully demonstrated a system that lets small-unmanned aircraft swarm and act together over a particular target. The system, called Low-Cost UAV Swarming Technology (LOCUST) features a tube-based launcher that can send multiple drones into the air in rapid succession. The systems then use information sharing between the drones, allowing autonomous collaborative behavior in either defensive or offensive missions, the Navy said.
LOCUST (Score:1)
Fantastic name!
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Low Cost UAV Swarming Technology (Score:1, Interesting)
That's LCUAVST, not LOCUST.
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Avoid link to clickbait filled, bloated news site: http://i.imgur.com/ivu7txP.gifv [imgur.com]
Unbloated link content:
When keepers at a zoo decided they wanted to spy on their chimpanzees with a drone, there was one resourceful ape who decided he wasn't going to put up with any monkeying around.
The clever chimp found a big stick and waited in a tree to ambush the intrusive flying eye.
As it flew past, he expertly whacked it and sent it plummeting to the ground where other chimps in the enclosure gathered round to inspect
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Maria Hill: What does "S.H.I.E.L.D." stand for, Agent Ward?
Agent Ward: Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division.
Maria Hill: And what does that mean to you?
Agent Ward: It means someone really wanted our initials to spell out "Shield".
Re:They should use these... (Score:4, Informative)
Idiot. Why do you fools keep buying into that nonsense? There is only one party in Washington, the money party. It shows two faces to make foolish morons like you think they have a choice.
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Keep it classy, Democrats.
Wait I think I saw this somewhere else... (Score:1)
This reminds me of carriers from Starcraft. Just without the Psy power source.
Their next move will be to develop 3D printers on-board to replace them as they get shot down.
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Perhaps but Starcraft is older than COD.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
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Robotech Missile Effect
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What, no Skynet reference?
The Beer Must Flow. Schmai-gunug be willing, steak for dinner sometime soon.
Chewie (Score:4, Funny)
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Smaller Is Better (Score:3)
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The problem with conventional missiles is that if they miss, and they miss a lot, they are expended. A drone can hang around and attack the next aircraft coming by.
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No, I want one of a thousand drones deployed as a wall in front of the aircraft to get sucked into the intake and break a couple of fins which will lead to catastrophic failure.
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A commercial jet has an even bigger size/mass advantage over a goose, yet geese have been known to bring one down even while they presumably try not to collide.
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Geese have a much tighter turning radius than a commercial jet (which is also presumably not trying to catch the geese).
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or 10 pounds of HX and a proximity sensor... just sayin'
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To carry 10 pounds and a proximity fuse would require a 20 pound drone. That would make it large, easily seen and easily avoided.
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Motorcycles are faster than dogs, yet many people get injured by dogs intercepting a motorcycle.
I am thinking you did not take physics and algebra classes to learn about trajectories and interception.
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In fact, let's we have a rocket powered drone, that has its own guidance systems, and an explosive charge, that is trying to hit the jet, or come reasonably close to it and explode that charge, in order to destroy the jet.
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Which would make flak guns way more effective. Start shooting flak that is nothing more than simple drones that look for large objects, get close to them and explode.
Flak shells are already 50% there as they have the proximity fuse, all we need to do is add a system to let them steer themselves to big objects.
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I think that if you are in a position to take out a fighter jet with a drone, you have options that are much simpler and surer.
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titanium? just the baseball will take out the turbine of a jet engine. all you need to do is break one or two turbine vanes and the engine will destroy it's self.
Jet engines are pretty darn flimsy in regards to objects entering the intake.
We're all in the field of PR (Score:3, Informative)
“This level of autonomous swarming flight has never been done before,” said Mastroianni. “
I beg to differ. Some groups I know of have been doing this (with vehicle to vehicle communication) since 2012.
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Citation needed.
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If he tells you he'll have to kill you. Unless he's referring to birds.
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Theory is great but it does take effort to make it reality.
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http://fireswarm.nl/ [fireswarm.nl]
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This is not swarming. It is using drones flying pre-programmed paths to survey and area and search for a fire. There is no intelligence in the drones and no drone to drone communication.
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can you reference where in the site it states that the project would use true swarming technology and not what I just described?
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What about jamming (Score:1)
And how exactly do these swarms work if the intended target starts jamming GPS signals, large chunks of the RF spectrum and shines infrared spotlights towards the swarm? On paper most autonomous military vehicles just seem too fragile to work as intended in a real situation.
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That's called a beacon (Score:3)
There's nothing like a good, strong RF+IR signal to home in on for pinpoint accuracy.
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And how exactly do these swarms work if the intended target starts jamming GPS signals, large chunks of the RF spectrum and shines infrared spotlights towards the swarm? On paper most autonomous military vehicles just seem too fragile to work as intended in a real situation.
A jammer is a transmitter. Turning on a jammer on the battlefield is like putting up a giant neon sign that says "BOMB ME!" right over your head. Militaries even have special kinds of missiles available (so called anti-radiation missiles [wikipedia.org]) that will lock on to anything transmitting, even in short bursts.
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Middle East = target? (Score:1)
Was predicted in SF 20 years ago or so... (Score:2)
I remember that an SF story a couple of decades ago predicted that cruise missiles and the computer technology to direct their swarming would make them inexpensive weapons of choice for some nations. Looks as if that time is upon us.
"...officials note, having this capability will force adversaries to focus on UAV swarm response." I hope that we also have some focus onUAV swarm response; the 'swarm' of Kamikaze attacks on our fleet off Okinawa in WWII inflicted great damage even though we had AA shells wit
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Doctors take a pledge not to kill people; I see no reason why we engineers shouldn't hold ourselves to the standard.
The original job of engineers was to build and use siege engines. An engineer's version of the Hippocratic Oath would involve not-not-killing people.
Applications (Score:4, Insightful)
God of Thunder! (Score:2)
video showing swarm launch (Score:2)
http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-... [kinja-img.com]