Unmanned Aircraft Clustered via Bluetooth

An anonymous reader writes "Researchers at the University of Essex are using Linux and tiny embedded computer modules to build fleets of unmanned aircraft that fly in flocking formations like birds, while performing parallel, distributed computing tasks using Bluetooth-connected Linux clustering software. The Gridswarm project includes model trainers that can fly 120mph, while a parallel Ultraswarm project uses co-axial helicopters. A prototype of the later is believed to the world's smallest flying web server. The aircraft will run Linux on embedded computing modules from Gumstix."

Comments

Cooooooool.

[mrseigen]

I wonder if my municipality will take offense to flying sorties over to my neighbours' yard to steal beer out of his cooler.

Re:Cooooooool.

[Anonymous Coward]

Can't wait for the first BT virus for this one. That's when you'll see the real sorties flying through your neighborhood.

Re:Cooooooool.

[Federico2]

and... it's so useless!

There's competition?

[GrouchoMarx]

A prototype of the later is believed to the world's smallest flying web server.

There's competition for that title? Just how many flying web servers are there? (IIS boxes falling out of high office windows after being thrown do not count.)

Re:There's competition?

[orion88]

I had the same thought when I read that...

-Ben

Re:There's competition?

[roseblood]

You know, I wonder WHY does one NEED a flying webserver that's small? If you've got to dish out websites from something that flies why not park a high-altitude blimp up at, oh..say, 50,000 feet and beam down the internet from there? Or... why not park a box full of anetna, electronics, bateries, and solar cells into orbit and do the same from there?

If you need a cluster of machines to work in paralell for greater number-crunching power, why not by a big server rack and throw in a bunch of 1U sized machines?

I mean, it's cool for the "wow, check this out" factor....but...real life aplications? Massively Paralell UAVs of DOOM?

Re:There's competition?

[Cryptacool]

Real-life applications is probably going to be something like smart sensor networks, you strap a small sensor to each little plane, send it out, tell them to flock together and have maybe one slight larger plane lagging behind which sends all the data back (power requirements for satelite communication and all). a lot harder to shoot down and a lot cheaper (and easier) to replace if it does get shot down.

Re:There's competition?

[Doc Ruby]

Because a flock of small, redundant machines is more reliable than a single one that fails all at once. And more scalable, especially in smaller increments. And more adaptable to multiple simultaneous tasks, as the real world often demands. And possibly cheaper to produce. The same architecture and economics that have multiplied smaller, cheaper networked machines on the ground is also compelling in the air - maybe more so, given the extra risks.

Oh, and the MPUDs you mention are also a much better way to get DoD funding than Blimps of Doom (which are also getting funded, I believe).

Re:There's competition?

[zerbot]

Yes, I see great applications in public safety. There are traffic speed sensors on the highways, and a sudden slowdown is often the first indicator of an accident. There are cameras but they don't cover end-to-end. Nest one of these every few miles and you can launch to investigate traffic slowdowns or confirmed accidents. Pipe the video to emergency response and they can dispatch exactly what resources are needed and paramedics can get a heads up on the kinds of injuries they are likely to be dealing with.

Call 911 and get an automatic dispatch of one to your location, arriving within 30 seconds in an urban location. Gives police and fire a heads up on what they will be facing when they arrive a few minutes later. Use them to monitor views of fires that can't be seen from the ground.

Re:There's competition?

[figgypower]

I dunno about the rest but 50,000 feet adds a hell lot of latency that isn't very fun. Go even higher, experience even more latency. I know... damn laws of physics.

Re:There's competition?

[sentientbeing]

A prototype of the later is believed to the world's smallest flying web server.

Support: 'The sites gonna be down for a while, the servers crashed.'

User: 'Dos attack or something?'

Support: 'No. It crashed literally.....into a tree'

Re:There's competition?

[Fussen]

How about the ISS's boxes falling out of windows?

Re:There's competition?

[surprise_audit]

Given that there's a limit to the amount of cpu power that can fit into any given size of airplane, the flying cluster can have much higher "brainpower" than a single vehicle. If nothing else, it should allow the cluster to more easily recognise objects, threats, etc without having to refer back to an operator.

And as you say, there's builtin redundancy, so that maybe the cluster could decide to risk a member by letting it peek around or over an object while the main group stays safe. Also, members could be "dropped off" to act as communication relays if necessary. And then there's the attraction of having multiple eyes viewing the target from different directions...

Re:There's competition?

[hachete]

Are there any satellites running webservers? Oh yes there is...

http://www.g4store.com/news/skycorp/

plus it's a g4!!!! Yeah!

Re:There's competition?

[Xaleth Nuada]

"Massively Paralell UAVs of DOOM?"

Exactly. The military already has flying webservers. They're packed into blackhawk helicopters. But when one goes down you have human loss as well as network connectivity. But a swarm of robots all linked together providing the troops (and commanders) with real time data across the battle field with redundancy and minimal danger to humans. That is a perfect use of robots.

Re:There's competition?

[YayaY]

No, there isn't

SkyCorp has not revealed the cost of the project, and no definite timetable for launch has been announced.

Re:There's competition?

[Doc Ruby]

"Life" is several trillion cells' agreement to be "you" for awhile. Imagine if they didn't have to stick together so closely?

Re:There's competition?

[siriuskase]

With a fleet of these things, Google Maps could operate in real time. It would make UFO tracking much easier.

Re:There's competition?

[JesseL]

50,000 feet results in an extra 100 microsecond delay (round trip). I wouldn't worry about it.

Re:There's competition?

[figgypower]

The way TCP/IP works is a transmission is sent, confirmation is returned and then another round trip is made to actually pass on the data. That's 200,000 feet. That's... a little bit over... 200 microseconds... yeah you're right...

Re:There's competition?

[EvilTwinSkippy]

What, are you going to hit him with a disintegrator beam or something?

Re:There's competition?

[Doc Ruby]

If "he" is a flock of unmanned aircraft clustered by Bluetooth, he's immune.

Uh oh.

[Knnniggit]

Well, there goes the neighborhood...

Re:Uh oh.

[roseblood]

Yes indeed, imagine if a software glitch cause your vehicle to crash. In the case of aircraft this could be a "Very Bad Thing" (tm).

Oh great, both at once

[Anonymous Coward]

Imagine a beowulf clust... I mean... imagine if you ran linux on... I mean... ARRGH!

MY BRAIN CAN'T COPE!

Re:Oh great, both at once

[lordofthechia]

Can you imagine a beowulf cluster of small craft that track down and eliminate slashdot poster's that reference beowulf clusters?

Add a way for them to deal death by dispensing scalding grits and manufacture them in Soviet Russia and finally justice can be served!

Re:Oh great, both at once

[ImaLamer]

In Soviet Union, Government Clusters You!

Re:Oh great, both at once

[harishpa]

Is it a bird ? Is it a plane ? No, its supercluster !!!!!

Re:Oh great, both at once

[hunterx11]

In fact this technology not only exists, but is already considered antiquated by the youth in South Korea.

Re:Oh great, both at once

[Anonymous Coward]

This story is turning in to a real cluster flock.

Re:Oh great, both at once

[PsiPsiStar]

If Natalie Portman flew in them, they would still be "unmanned".

Re:Oh great, both at once

[smittyoneeach]

Except in Soviet Russia, where overlords fly you, of course.

Re:Oh great, both at once

[BranMan]

But alas we shall never see that pass, as ALL YOUR BASE for these small, airborne, scalding grits dispensing, beowulf clustering, Soviet Russia manufactured craft

ARE BELONG TO US

Re:Oh great, both at once

[tocs]

beowulf clust shouldn't this be a beowulf flock

Those pesky birds, I'll have to fight fire with

[Anonymous Coward]

fire!
Build Your Own Bluetooth Sniper Rifle

Real boids?

[davi_bock]

I wonder if they base their algorithm on Craig Reynolds' boids?

They just gave "shutdown" a whole new meaning :)

[Seiruu]

*imagines little MPAA people running around with guns*

Flcoking Behavior

[Cryptacool]

As an A-LIFE dork I think the fact that they got these planes to exhibit true (if they arent lying little light on details) flocking behavior, it's not hard to make things flock it takes basically 3 instructions.

1) Follow the plane/bird in front of you
2) Go about as fast as the plane/birds around you
3) Don't hit other birds/planes, keep a reasonable distance.

Emergent behavior is really amazing if you are interested in it some more check out alife9.org Its the website of the last alife conference in boston that took place over the summer, really neat stuff in there.

Re:Flcoking Behavior

[Cryptacool]

uhh sorry its late, i didnt finish my though, it's not that hard, _in theory_ to create emergent flocking behavior its just really really neat to see it done with actual planes/helicopters.

Re:Flcoking Behavior

[DietCoke]

I'm not much for birds, but I am partial to christmas tree flocking.

However, that isn't quite as wild as watching it done with planes, I'm betting.

Re:Flcoking Behavior

[dmaduram]

Hmm, I could be wrong about this, but flocking behavior is *vastly* more complex than the three points that listed in the parent's post.

From what I understand, flocking doesn't result from just 'following the birds adjacent to you', but instead a result of optimizing a complex multiplanar lifting system in order to reduce total flight power demand.

Honestly, I'd be suprised if the researchers were able to emulate the real purpose of a flock, instead of just emulating superficial swarming behavior -- there was a very readable article in Science written by two guys at Caltech on flight efficiency & flocking, and they conclude with the premise that: "theoretically 25 birds could have a range increase of about 70 percent as compared with a lone bird"

IMO, programmed swarming behavior is nothing new, but if these researchers run with the ball and generate *real* efficiency-optimizing flocking behavior with man-made aircraft, the ramifactions could be huge.

Re:Flcoking Behavior

[AaronGTurner]

Lift optimising behaviour is a special case of general flocking behaviour that provides a particular evolutionary benefit for long journeys, for example by geese. Basic flocking behaviour (for example flocks of starlings) doesn't exhibit this. The latter requires relatively small numbers of local rules to create the emergent behaviour. There is still debate on how locally each bird looks to determine its flight path and to what extent it looks to birds beyond its immediate locality.

Re:Flcoking Behavior

[slackerboy]

I think you're confusing the purpose of flocking with how it comes about. The bird's are not actively sitting down and "optimizing a complex multiplanar lifting system". The optimization can be an emergent behavior that arises from simple flocking rules.

Re:Flcoking Behavior

[Pollardito]

The bird's are not actively sitting down and "optimizing a complex multiplanar lifting system".

who knows what's going on behind those beady, little eyes

Re:Flcoking Behavior

[siriuskase]

I wouldn't put anything past a flock of birds. I've seen the movie, much scarier than that shark movie.

familiar

[Anonymous Coward]

I saw this on an episode of tale-spin once

I see skynet just got it flying drones

[Anonymous Coward]

I cant wait till they start strapping sidewinders on these things, like to see them HaXoRz try a D.O.S. attack then!!

drone1: incoming slashdot effect!
drone2: take offensive action!
drone3-10: wi-fi targets aquired
??????
boom.

Want funding?

[MoralHazard]

I'm amazed that the article didn't include any references to "Homeland Security" or "fighting terrorism". Doesn't it seem like every single goddamned new idea, or retread of an old one, gets stretched in the marketing to push the security applications for terrorism?

Where there's money, though...

Re:Want funding?

[mtrisk]

I suppose these could be used to patrol the border (with Mexico of course) or scout out terrain or a combat zone in Iraq.

Re:Want funding?

[lordofthechia]

From the article "The photo below shows de Nardi's prototype serving a web page"

Great, now its feasable for the slashdot effect to cause real collateral damage. Lets hope the terrorists don't discover the weakness of this new technology...

BTW, anybody have a link to the page hosted by the prototype :)

Re:Want funding?

[manojar]

because that is being done in the UK, where homeland security is the bobbies protecting the crown and her jewels.

Re:Want funding?

[Vo0k]

Because they were developed in UK, not US, the land of Freedom.

Re:Want funding?

[jnf]

true and agreed- it is overhyped, but one thing everyone must accept is that governments fund this type of research the most, and most of the time its to either create:

a) better weapons
b) better weapon defenses
or
c) better communications

with that said it really shouldn't be surprising that everything has military applications .. HOWEVER! i do agree with your base point and understand that what I am saying is slightly different than what you are saying. cheers.

Re:Want funding?

[eagles-wings]

I believe that's the University of Essex in the UK - we went on a tour there to see their robotics dept. The helicopter is hovering above their powerd floor so that robots can re-charge whilst on the floor (that's how I could tell it was the UK Essex)

Pretty cool idea though - wish I'd gone to that campus now instead of the Southend one.

Oh well...

Re:Want funding?

[Shaper_pmp]

Maybe in the US, but here in the UK we're refreshingly clear of unnecessary terrorist paranoia.

Might be because we don't currently have a large, powerful right-wing coalition bent on dominating the entire political process, who needs a constant state of paranoia and fear to create the climate in which they can fulfill their orwellian wet-dreams (it's our "left"-wing party now)...

Or possibly just that we sensibly got all that expansionist empire-building crap out of our systems a hundred years ago, before all the little brown people we were bombing, gassing and shooting had the technology to get back at us.

Now? Oh, you know... bygones.

Re:Want funding?

[Shaper_pmp]

Nah, you don't.

I went to Essex (BSc and MSc), and while Owen Holland (who I was taught by for MSc) is great, and the CompSci and ESE departments churn out a lot of cool research, I wouldn't advise anyone to go there for undergrad work.

Why? Let's just say the university authorities haven't grasped why treating "undergraduate students" as "consumers" is inherently wrong. University should be about getting out, exploring life and extending your horizons. The UG CompSci programme has a distressing tendency to induct you, throw learning at you for three years, then chuck you out the other end - they seemed completely uninterested in you except as a statistic to push their yearly number of passes up.

I actually had lecturers who made themselves "available" for an hour a week outside of lectures (between maybe 200 students), when/if they could be bothered to attend, or who refused to explain badly-worded assignments, then knocked off marks if people mis-understood.

This is also a university with an unusually high proportion of foreign students (meaning the *majority* of people don't have english as a first language), so outside-lecture support is even more important.

Don't get me wrong - there are some very, very good, dedicated and caring lecturers there, but they tend to get drowned out by the general "corporate" culture.

As I said, I had a great time as a postgrad, but the undergrad scheme is basically high school over again, but with legal drinking.

Re:Want funding?

[surprise_audit]

Yep. We Brits got used to terrorists years ago, with the IRA blowing up random bits of scenery as well as a number of innocent bystanders and, occasionally, themselves. It's probably a good thing we didn't send troops to sort out the people funding the IRA because, as I recall, it was widely believed that Irish-Americans were up there on the list of contributors. If Dubya had been Prime Minister back then, he'd have invaded New York...

Re:Want funding?

[Shaper_pmp]

Oh yes, I forgot that bit. "If you feed a terrorist or fund a terrorist, you're a terrorist", eh GW?

http://www.whistlestopper.com/forum/archive/index. php/t-7305.html

Re:Want funding?

[tinkerton]

They can cover a large area (a city) over a long timespan.
The planes can land , recharge, and take off without much overview. Planes adjust to fill gaps when a plane leaves. And when a plane is added, it just finds its place and the others adjust. A plane breaks, the others adjust immediately. So you can also easily allocate a few planes to observe a location in more detail. The other planes will spread accordingly.

So it's the kind of stuff that the dod will drool at. Or Israel of course.

Re:Want funding?

[HoneyBeeSpace]

Most of this company is funded on DoD and military budgets like you mention. They have ad-hoc flocking guided parachute systems. Pretty cool stuff, especially when the flock splits at the end and they go into holding/landing patterns:

http://www.atairaerospace.com/

We know they run linux

[Anonymous Coward]

But do they run Windows?

Imagine a Windows 2003 server farm of flying cluster planes.

Re:We know they run linux

[grimsweep]

That was the original plan, but I believe it was scrapped due to planes inexplicably bursting into flames. Rumor has it had something to do with posting a link to the airborne servers on Slashdot....

Re:We know they run linux

[Propaghandi]

...Thus the term, "Flying Cluster-fuck!"

Random fly!!

[prabha]

Considering Bluetooth range in Open Air, i will be surprised if they fly at random formation.
Best and Easier option is to fly Synchronized.

Re:RTFA

[davi_bock]

Hm maybe I missed it -- I didn't see him mentioned in TFA...but it is late. Anyway if he's not, he should be -- as far as I know he was the first to figure out and demonstrate how a few simple rules can generate flocking behavior (Cryptacool lists the rules in another comment).

Bullet with Beowulf Wings

[goneutt]

I'm visualizing a flock of computer controled ultralight orinthopters with wings made of plastic explosive. Commanded, they flock and gather on places where a demolition charge needs to be set. Once a critical number gathers, they organize to make a shaped charge, and BOOM!!!.

Also, visualize a bombsquad guy in all that padding chasing these things with a net.

Re:Bullet with Beowulf Wings

[Esion Modnar]

I'm visualizing a flock of computer controled ultralight orinthopters with wings made of plastic explosive.

This reminds me of that Road Runner cartoon where Wiley Coyote takes a couple dozen sticks of dynamite, straps wings to them, lights the fuses, and releases them from a balloon...

At least for a while, they seem to flock. Whole rest of the cartoon, they keep drifting in on him.

Re:Bullet with Beowulf Wings

[hopethisnickisnottak]

You can't make a shaped charge like that.
It has to be homogeneous and it has to be solid.

Kind of like this....
___
/
**/ - Copper or other fast forming metal in front
| of a lot of High Explosive
\
___\

If you try to make it from many different masses (as your post seems to say), then the energy developed will bleed away through the gaps making it highly inefficient (and maybe useless).

Re:Bullet with Beowulf Wings

[myowntrueself]

I was thinking something similar, except more along the lines of 'the days of the strategic bomber are numbered'.

Clusters such as you describe might be the killer defense that could render the strategic bomber vulnerable and obsolete.

Re:Bullet with Beowulf Wings

[HiThere]

So have them dive into the jet engine nacelles. You might not even need explosive, just make them with a really hard backbone (say titanium encrusted with thermite).

Did somebody say webserver?

[Anonymous Coward]

FTFS: A prototype of the later is believed to be the world's smallest flying web server.

It would be interesting to follow the effects of slashdotting on that one, quick somebody post a link!

Can we say Michael Crichton???

[Supp0rtLinux]

Sounds like something out of Michael Crichton's Prey

My Treo/PDA/Smartphone Optimized Site

Re:Can we say Michael Crichton???

[Mister Impressive]

No, these things don't cluster to form life-like mimics of things or people, don't self-replicate or chew up mp3 players.

I think it's more technology catching up with nature.

Re:Can we say Michael Crichton???

[hairykrishna]

Whatever happened to Crichton? 'Andromeda strain', 'The great train robbery' and a few of his others were badass. I recently read 'Timeline' and 'Prey' and to say there were shit is giving them a generous review. As for his little rant about global warming in 'State of Fear'. Well. Let me put it like this: It's ok to be dangerously uninformed as long as people don't actually listen to you.

Re:Can we say Michael Crichton???

[bhenak]

When reading the post I immediately thought of Prey. Now we just have to make sure we don't install AI software on the swarms.......

Re:Can we say Michael Crichton???

[lrucker]

It's the "I'm too important to need an editor" effect - other notable victims are Stephen King and Frank Herbert.

Can you overclock this?

[goneutt]

I see a natural benefit to building flying webservers. When the /. effect kicks in, you accellerate to increase the cooling, and if nessicary, you take the flock out of populated areas to burst into flames.
Probably work better in england, here in my part of Texas the red tailed hawks would probably take 'em down.

why? how? perhaps this will shed the light

[phloydphreak]

I agree with the why; no matter how cool it would be to be sniffing for wifi and running across the webservers' routing from my home machine, it seems silly to exert so much effort (read money) for the effect. Maybe is is useful for someone who does not want their website to be tracked by big brother(tm)... which is feasible in the US now-a-days. Yet just by doing that, one would need to be using open AP's that one is flying by, just asking for Federal Freddy to not so proverbially nail your ass to the proverbial wall.

Yet I disagree with the blimp. You have to be able to upload your requests, meaning you will need an amplified radio to communicate to the blimp, leading to alot of crosstalk. Same problem with the orbital idea. If you want to solve this problem with uber-transmitters like satellite dishes, you are looking at (i dont remember exactly from cs 428, but somewhere in the range of) 128kbps u/l and 64-48kbps d/l.

Re:why? how? perhaps this will shed the light

[jnf]

if nothing else think of the implications of a highly mobile (flying) intranet- the original design was to survive a nuclear holocaust and this further helps that (although i doubt it gets high enough to really make a different)-- however it is a step in that direction. Also, think of military uses, again it would need to be high altitude to be really usable but a highly mobile communications system could replace microwave point to point communications in that sense. but hell, i really dont know what im talking about it's just what popped into my head.

Post a link to...

[andy jenkins]

...the world's smallest flying web server

and let's crash the focker.

this story has everything....

[jpardey]

unmanned planes, linux, bluetooth... wait, no breasts. Nevermind.

Re:this story has everything....

[rob_squared]

That's the way to beat the terrorists! Planes with breasts can't be targted by terrorists because they're not allowed to look at them.

Bluetooth Season

[Reteo Varala]

So, by using the right virus, and a bluetooth rifle, you can shoot these planes down?

Re:Bluetooth Season

[quarkscat]

Actually, no virus will be needed. Just shoot down the lead "bird", and the rest will fly in formation smack into the ground. Wish that shooting ducks was that easy, although it wouldn't be "sporting".

So...

[Anonymous Coward]

So what we have here then... is a Cluster Flock?

errr US?

[icke]

Since when has Essex been in the US? Here is the guy doing the research and here is where he is located. Spot the blue stuff between the East coast of the US and Colchester? Not sure Google has mapped out Europe yet mind you ;-) O.

Re:errr US?

[Zeussy]

Google has mapped the UK. Makes an interesting map of the world, North America and United Kingdom. And people say google does no evil, its discarded the rest of the world.

Imagine...

[Omnedon]

... a beowulf cluster... Err... Why is Alfred Hitchcock staring at me..?

Someone mention web server?

[om3ga]

just wait until the site hosted on one of these things gets slashdotted.. it'll be raining fire, literally!

Birdbrain?

[J. Random Luser]

Ahh, now I do feel superior...

Interesting factoid: a typical flock of starlings (about 2,000 birds) contains as much brain tissue as a single human.

How good for security?

[om3ga]

All we need now is BTEfnet hosted on a cluster of these things.. lets see the MPAA catch em now... Program the things to fly off when under attack!

Although when the next Lost or Dr Who episode comes out... Expect a few of these things to fall from the sky.

Great, thats all we need....

[cold fjord]

Linux runs skynet... literally. :(

If it ran Windows we would have a chance. Now the rise of the Machines is inevitable. :(

Why couldn't people stick to porting to toasters and watches?

Re:Great, thats all we need....

[Ibix]

Now the rise of the Machines is inevitable. :(

Well - as long as the sensors and code work so they don't crash into each other. The Fall of the Machines. :)

I

obligatory

[maharg]

I for one welcome our bird-like flocking-flying parallel-processing bluetooth-connected linux-cluster overlords !

what's next ? flying pigs with embedded linux running on hardware powered by blood sugar connected by light-teleportation doing acrobatic displays whilst hosting online PS3 games. I think so !

Re:a more timely meme

[J. Random Luser]

timely, huh? Release date spring 2006? Expect by then to see MacOS-X running on hardware from Redmond.

BTW I'll give the oblig. reference to Dragonfly OS

120mph?!

[wellard1981]

A Chris Foss Classic Wot 4 will never reach 120mph! This is because the thickness of the wing., With the equipment in the wing, I hope they've increased the strength in the wing.

And they already say that linux geeks...

[jurt1235]

flock together, now their systems do that too.

This could work with driverless cars

[Anonymous Coward]

The following are obvious ideas, but maybe publishing them could prevent patenting.
* A queue of cars is also like a flock
* Onboard computers can co-operate in helping drive the cars, or entirely drive the cars
* The cars can use a suitable operating system, such as Linux.
* The cars can communicate through radio, light, sound etc., using any protocol, for example blue-tooth.
* At a junction, any car can choose to leave its current flock and join one heading more towards the car's destination.
* Each flock of cars uses external navigation information from satellites, broadcast radio, networks such as the Internet, contactless chips in the road surface, etc.
* The flock co-operates to receive navigation information, giving greater total bandwidth and better positional accuracy.
* Flocks share information with other flocks, reducing the effect of traffic jams.
* A car can reserve a parking place or other service, to be ready as (or just before) it arrives.
* A driver can pay money to adjust the priority of his or her car, giving it priority when cars decide who should overtake, or who should go in the "fast lane", or park closest to their exact destination.

Re:This could work with driverless cars

[Barryke]

thanks, and just to be sure noone u.. err. abuses it, i patented it just now.

Flying Routers

[Nurgled]

It would be interesting to have packs of these things fly around in a pattern and meet up with one another periodically and share pending packets. They would also periodically fly near base stations and exchange packets with the network there. It would be like a fully-networked version of RFC 1149!

Military uses?

[david.heyman]

I can see how parts of this might be interesting in a military application. Run several UAV's in formation with one person controlling them. Use the bluetooth to enable them to triangulate positions and keep from getting too close to one another.

Re:Military uses?

[Picasso'sToeJam]

Sorry, It's time to report to the destruction chamber. You were killed in that sortie.

Well, against the slashdot effect ..

[RedLaggedTeut]

You know, I wonder WHY does one NEED a flying webserver that's small?

Obviously, when a webserver detects the slashdot effect, it will signal the UWWWWCOM, which will quickly deploy a flock of webservers towards the site to serve webpages.

Then, when the slashdot effect cools off, the flying webservers can be redeployed as necessary, maybe to provide entertainment to soldiers in Iraq.

A very efficient use of resources, isn't it?

Re:Well, against the slashdot effect ..

[astro_ripper]

We joke about the /. effect catching servers on fire... Just thinking about what would happen to a flying server that get's /. *doppler shifting whistling noise* ... BOOM!

Terminator Prototype?

[Analogy Man]

heterogeneous swarms that employ a combination of airborne and terrestrial robots.

Where to begin?

[wowbagger]

Where to begin with the jokes?

But penguins cannot fly!

Great! Now we can re-shoot Hitchcock's "The Birds" with the [RI|MP]AA as the stars!

Now I'll have to wash all those core dumps off my car!

SQUAWCK! We are the Borg. SQUAWCK! Resistance is futile! SQUAWCK! 4 of 99 wants a cracker! SQUAWCK!

A robotic parrot/web server is the perfect gift for a data pirate - when will ThinkGeek carry them?

Do they use RFC 1149?

Re:Where to begin?

[HiThere]

I hadn't heard that Parrot had gotten into beta yet. And a Perl6 on his shoulder just doesn't sound the same.

Jethro & Cletus

[smittyoneeach]

Jethro: That vee of flyin' gadgets yonder: ya'll know why one leg of the vee's longer'n t'other?
Cletus: Nope. Why?
Jethro: Got more gadgets in it.

"World's smallest flying web server"

[jac1962]

What would I do without /.?

What about in-flight refueling?

[lcsjk]

So you fly it for 10-15 minutes max and then come in for a 30 minute recharge. Seems like ghe ground crew are going to be very busy for the anticipated "flock".

With enough battery power to run for 10 minutes or even one hour, there has to be a fast and convenient way to re-charge or re-fuel. In-flight would be good. Consider a larger battery filled helocopter flying nearby. When a plane or copter needed recharging it would fly nearby and couple itself with the re-charger. How to transfer energy from one to the other is left up to the reader.

HIgh Altitiude?

[bigattichouse]

How about a swarm of high altitude balloons that form a telescope array? using their fans, they can stay in relative position to one another.

Ahh, but that's the problem

[hawk]

*someone* took all the beowolf jokes a *bit* too far this time . . .

hawk

Sounds Familiar...

[JohnPerkins]

Didn't Doctor Doom do this in the Ultimate Fantastic Four, with little mechanical flying attack bugs? Issue 9 if i'm not mistaken...

cooperation

[willCode4Beer.com]

The planes might be able to exploit each other aerodynamically as well. If a plane can position itself in the upward moving portion of the wingtip vortex of the plane in front of it, it could potentially use less power to keep itself airborne. If the planes rotate the "leadership" position then they may be able to fly for extended periods of time.

Lightning Induce Chaos?

[BoRegardless]

That might be fun to watch what happens to a swarm after a bolt from the sky disrupts a tight maneover.

heterogeneous swarms

[boicy]

"As well as working on airborne gridswarms using UAVs, we are interested in heterogeneous swarms that employ a combination of airborne and terrestrial robots."

GAK! The robots are coming!! RUN FOR THE HILLS! They are coming from the hills! RUN AWAY FROM THE HILLS!

My lecturer!

[MrSeb]

Yay!

Finally, a piece on the University of Essex (where I currently study)

The main guy behind this is Dr Clark, who's been teaching us graphics this year. We've been working with POV-RAY, which he then proceeds to execute on his 30-strong Shuttle cluster - the same cluster they use to simulate their flying gridswarms.

He calls it the fastest desktop computer in the world...

Grammar Nazi

[cbciv]

Can you imagine a beowulf cluster of small craft that track down and eliminate slashdot poster's that reference beowulf clusters?

Better yet, they could track down and eliminate slashdot posters who don't know the difference between the plural and possessive.

Slashdot Effect

[bill_kress]

Look at all those lovely planes flying out there.

Oh yeah, I read about that. They are a cluster--here is their web site.

Cool, this is amazing. Hang on while I post it to Slashdot.

[sound of planes falling from the sky follows]

Wow...that makes me....

[jeephistorian]

petrified with fear......

Standard MicroSoft misquote

[SnarfQuest]

Where does your server want to go today?

+ nano-tech = intelligent fog

[HiThere]

This sounds like a step towards one of the nano-tech promisses that sounded too wierd to believe.

I wonder how much that could be miniturised before air friction required a radical re-design.

RedFang

[bfree]

So I presume the each military will get some manufacturer to build custom bluetooth chips (operating on military frequencies), then fit everything of note with these. Finally have your flocks of servers moving the data around and creating/maintainging redundant communication links (perhaps ferrying meta-data across the prime network, data on demand and delivering drops of data at other times perhaps literally with cards), providing intelligence on the ground and back to base. I can also forsee these being exteremly useful in crowd control situations, for example you could fly a swarm in a stadium, programmed to keep everyone in sight at all times while being directable to focus on particular areas. Maybe you could even get some truly spectaulr sporting footage if their awareness and collission control systems were good enough (hovering around the net in tennis, eye-level following/looking back at a football/hockey player with the ball or even landing on cars in motorsports races). Whatever sorts of uses they ever get, you can be sure the military is funding plenty of work into this sort of area.

Red tailed hawks, huh?

[patio11]

In a red state I don't think it will just be hawks tailing these guys... "What we got ourselves here is a real live specimen of web servus linuxtrocious. Remember, just winging them won't take it down, that OSS software can take a licking and keep on ticking. Better bring out the AP ammo."