Wiki

"Creating art and beauty with our autonomous weapons systems."

Also known as "Ballet & Battle", to be prospectively presented at HCPP16.

Script

Script for Ballet

Presenter stands in front of a homogeneous group of 20 small drones. To the tune of a sound track, he uses hand gestures to arm and prime the drones, turning on their LEDs (initially of a homogeneous color), raising them into the air (initially as one big swarm), dividing them into two distinct swarms (LEDs change color accordingly, and drones regroup in the air into two flocks), and designating their enemy swarm and letting them fire at will.

This phase of the script takes about a minute, or perhaps two in case we decide to do more ballet prior to the battle.

Script for Battle I

Drones in each swarm designate a target in the enemy swarm, and fire their laser at it at will. Both drones and swarms move: drones within the swarm, to avoid getting hit by enemy firing solutions, and the swarm as a whole to demonstrate dynamism. The swarms keep their distance (variable, but min/max bounded) from each other.

This phase of the battle goes on for a minute or so, with no clear victor emerging and all drones staying in the air.

Script for Battle II

One of the swarms autonomously, or as response to command from presenter, changes to an alternate battle strategy, where all drones (10x) in the swarm concentrate fire on the same designated enemy drone (1x) instead of shooting at different targets.

As a result, the target drone quickly incurs significant (simulated) damage and has to perform an emergency landing (or just falls from the air, in case a soft landing can be guaranteed to avoid damaging hardware).

The targeting process repeats individually for all drones in the losing swarm, until only the victorious swarm is left in the air.

This phase of the battle is over in about a minute, concluding the demo.

Questions

Choose good flocking algorithms for the two swarms.

To be researched from the academic literature.
Ideally, use two different algorithms, to obtain visually distinct swarm behavior for each team.

Visibility of laser beams in fog-machine output?

Not so much fog that you can't see the battle, but enough that laser beams are largely visible.
To be tested in Berlin or Bratislava over the summer.

Simultaneous radio control of multiple Crazyflies?

Low-tech solution: 20x Crazyradio PA USB dongles, connected to USB hub(s), configured to use different radio channels.
- Cost of 20x dongles is non-ideal, but the alternative would require modifying Crazyflie firmware to support multiplexing over one or two channels; possible, but additional work. (Time versus money, as usual.)
- Availability and feasibility of 20-port USB hubs? (Or 2x 10-port.)

Select sound track for demo.
- Suggestion from Mike: Bach.

Budget

Costs estimated from German distributors, and include taxes.

Budget for Drones

The cost estimate for an individual drone is sub-€300:

€200 Crazyflie 2.0
€30 Crazyradio PA
€20 LED-ring deck
€20 DWM1000 modules used as tags
€10 PCB adapter for DWM1000
€5 Laser module

Budget for Ground Control Station

€0 Laptop. (Reuse existing.)
€5x20 for USB hub (cost estimated per port). Probably use 2x USB hubs.
€100? Fog machine rental
€20x4 DWM1000 modules used as anchors
€10x4 PCB adapter for DWM1000