Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)

Defence develops smart birds of prey

"SWARMS of networked, smart pilotless planes could become part of Australia's defence arsenal if work by from Defence's peak research body is successful.

The Adelaide-based Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) has begun research on a "collective intelligence" for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), using advanced maths to model different scenarios.

Groups of small, inexpensive UAVs could be put to work in a variety of missions, including reconnaissance, work in hazardous environments and to carry weapons.

"Each agent in the network has its own function while there is an over-arching utility function for the whole system," DSTO mathematician Alex Ryan said.

"It is vital that the agents don't work at cross purposes, and they must each be able to react to unexpected circumstances."

The project was "working on the edge of chaos", he said."

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Posted by Darren at August 22, 2004 10:53 PM | More from UAV News |