home News Unmanned Ground and Aerial Vehicle Swarm Technology to be Demonstrated

Unmanned Ground and Aerial Vehicle Swarm Technology to be Demonstrated

Jul 27, 2016

drones photo illustration by US Navy by US Navy — 050627-N-0295M-021 St. Inigoes, Md. (June 27, 2005) – A group photo of aerial demonstrators at the 2005 Naval Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Air Demo held at the Webster Field Annex of Naval Air Station Patuxent River. Pictured are (front to back, left to right) RQ-11A Raven, Evolution, Dragon Eye, NASA FLIC, Arcturus T-15, Skylark, Tern, RQ-2B Pioneer, and Neptune. The daylong UAV demonstration highlights unmanned technology and capabilities from the military and industry and offers a unique opportunity to display and demonstrate full-scale systems and hardware. This year’s theme was, “Focusing Unmanned Technology on the Global War on Terror.” U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 2nd Class Daniel J. McLain (RELEASED)

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Swarm technology enables unmanned ground or aerial vehicles to move together in swarms of dozens of vehicles at the same time and in coordination.

Over the next nine weeks, the U.S. Navy will conduct two technology demonstrations of swarming unmanned vehicles. The demonstrations in July and September will feature unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned surface vehicles (USVs), respectively.

The July demonstration will feature the US Navy LOCUST (Low-Cost UAV Swarming Technology) program that was demonstrated in 2014.

According to the SeaPower Magazine, the LOCUST includes a tube launcher that can launch multiple UAVs in rapid succession. An information-sharing data link between the UAVs enables autonomous collaboration among the UAVs. The swarm of UAVs can be used for offensive or defensive missions to overwhelm the capabilities of enemy platforms.

“Next week, down in the Gulf of Mexico, we will be launching 30 UAVs within two minutes and they will be forming up, flying, engaged,” said Rear Adm. Mathias W. Winter, chief of naval research. The science behind swarming — “the intelligent algorithms and the ability to communicate, sense and avoid, re-group and separate”— is domain-agnostic, explained Winter. “We take that learning and bring it into the surface domain. We’re going to be doing a surface swarming demonstration in September,” he said.

“We did one in 2014 and that was the original algorithm set that now has been matured into LOCUST,” he said. “We have a follow-on to that which is more operational aligned for a high-value unit with multiple swarming boats to set up a perimeter, break off and engage an adversary and come back, and all man-in-the-loop, and approved by the Coast Guard. That’s going to be an exciting demonstration towards the end of September.”

Winter said the Office of Naval Research is building up toward demonstration of domain-agnostic combinations in swarming vehicles.

“In the next demonstration, I want a UUV [unmanned underwater vehicle], USV and UAV swarming together,” he said. “We want to understand: is that technically feasible? The answer to that is yes.”