Autonomous Blimp Swarms Researched

Autonomous Blimp Swarms Researched

Photo illust. US Air Force
960611-F-4141A-001 The 71M Aerostat Test Balloon is prepared for lift off from the Aerostat Test Bed at McGregor Range, N. M. on June 11, 1996, during exercise Roving Sands Ô96. The AerostatÕs radar system, located under the belly of the balloon, is able to track aircraft and cruise missiles at a range of up to 150 nautical miles. Roving Sands Ô96 is the worldÕs largest joint, tactical air defense exercise involving service men and women from the U.S., Germany, the Netherlands and Canada. The exercise allows multinational forces to practice tactics, techniques and procedures improving their defense capabilities. DoD photo by Airman Benjamin Andera, U.S. Air Force.

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Researchers at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) flew a fleet of 30 miniature autonomous blimps in unison to test the swarming behavior of autonomous systems. The blimps responded to each other while in flight and responded to changing conditions.

The goal of the team is to fly more than 100 controlled miniature blimps this year. Researchers from Georgia Tech and from the distributed autonomous systems group at NRL, led by Don Sofge, created the miniature blimp platform.

One of the goals for Sofge’s research is to understand the potential uses for swarms of autonomous systems — both defensive and offensive. Some desired emergent behaviors include protecting an asset, providing area coverage, conducting reconnaissance missions, or simply moving in formation from one location to another.

Ants in a colony perform actions often equated with the functions of a society, but they do not have a central control. The possibility of replicating individual behaviors in autonomous systems is of great interest to researchers. “We are using these as platforms to demonstrate swarm behaviors,” Sofge said. “Each agent is making its own decisions, sensing the world around it so that the action of the group results in some desirable emergent behavior.”

Sofge and his team plan to design swarm behaviors to scale up emergent swarming behavior to involve as many as 10,000 autonomous systems.

The NRL research team is also working to establish a seamless networking architecture. They are leveraging existing network architectures and protocols for large numbers of objects working together. Each object in a swarm is dynamic and its location is never fixed. The object may move in and out of the network, which makes overlaying a network architecture extremely difficult.

Autonomous objects in a swarm must deal with a challenge common in military environments: communication. The U.S. Department of Defense operates all over the world, from the chilling Arctic to hot tropical forests. Staying in communication with an agent despite inhospitable environments and potential enemy jamming is something Sofge and his team must keep in mind as they develop swarming technology.