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Tiny flying Web server set to swarm

flock of birds

A swarm of tiny flying computers could one day have its own IP address (Image: iStockphoto)

A tiny helicopter that serves up a Web page over a wireless network has been made by UK scientists using off-the-shelf hardware.

The 70-gram prototype, is the first in a group of flying computers that are planned to one day combine swarm intelligence, the ability to maneuver like a flock of birds, and wireless computing, to process information the way cluster-based supercomputers do.

"This would mean you could process data within the swarm that would be impossible for a single aircraft to do," says Professor Owen Holland of the University of Essex who heads the team who developed the prototype called UltraSwarm.

Presently, autonomous planes used for such things as reconnaissance fly in a crisscross pattern over a large aerial path, shooting images at timed intervals.

The big planes carry enough computing onboard to piece images together and create aerial maps, as well scan them for particular image features relevant to the mission. But because they are big, they risk being detected.

Smaller planes rely on ground-based computers for image processing, but must transmit data that could be intercepted.

But a flock of aircraft could photograph a large area from multiple perspectives much more quickly than one plane, and by distributing the computational task wirelessly between aircraft, could work together to process the data in flight undetected.

Holland's quest for such a flock has lead him to find lightweight helicopters and components that can be purchased off the shelf.

"He is doing system integration from what has been present in the market. That is really excellent," says Assistant Professor Alcherio Martinoli of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne and a committee chair for the 2005 IEEE Swarm Intelligence Symposium being held this week in Pasadena, California.

Holland's group uses a 30-centimetre-long, remote-controlled toy helicopter retrofitted with new motors, two batteries, a miniature computer system, Bluetooth wireless technology, and a small colour video camera.

The batteries are enough to power a computer with 64 megabytes of RAM and four megabytes of flash memory.

In recent tests, the helicopter flew for three minutes and was able to serve up the UltraSwarm project Web page via its wireless connection.

The idea is that each helicopter in the swarm will have its own IP address, enabling it to access data and be monitored across a wireless network.

Holland expects to have at least four helicopters up and working within the next year, and a larger and more refined flock is envisioned within three or four years.
