Unmanned Aircraft Clustered via Bluetooth 189
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."
Cooooooool. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Cooooooool. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Cooooooool. (Score:1)
(Actually, at least the earlier prototype used beowulf software.)
There's competition? (Score:5, Funny)
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? (Score:1)
-Ben
Re:There's competition? (Score:3, Funny)
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
why? how? perhaps this will shed the light (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:why? how? perhaps this will shed the light (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:There's competition? (Score:3, Informative)
Oh, and the MPUDs you mention are also a much better way to g
Re:There's competition? (Score:3, Interesting)
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 b
cooperation (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:There's competition? (Score:2, Redundant)
Re:There's competition? (Score:2)
Re:There's competition? (Score:2)
Well, against the slashdot effect .. (Score:5, Funny)
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:There's competition? (Score:5, Informative)
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? (Score:2)
Re:There's competition? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:There's competition? (Score:1)
Well christ, if IIS does one thing well, it's crashing.
Re:There's competition? (Score:2, Funny)
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? (Score:2)
http://www.g4store.com/news/skycorp/ [g4store.com]
plus it's a g4!!!! Yeah!
Re:There's competition? (Score:2)
Uh oh. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Uh oh. (Score:1)
Oh great, both at once (Score:5, Funny)
MY BRAIN CAN'T COPE!
Re:Oh great, both at once (Score:4, Funny)
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 (Score:2)
Re:Oh great, both at once (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Oh great, both at once (Score:2)
Re:Oh great, both at once (Score:2)
ARE BELONG TO US
Re:Oh great, both at once (Score:2)
Re:Oh great, both at once (Score:1)
Ahh, but that's the problem (Score:2)
hawk
Re:a more timely meme (Score:1)
BTW I'll give the oblig. reference to Dragonfly OS
Re:Oh great, both at once (Score:2)
Those pesky birds, I'll have to fight fire with (Score:1, Funny)
Build Your Own Bluetooth Sniper Rifle [slashdot.org]
Real boids? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:RTFA (Score:1)
They just gave "shutdown" a whole new meaning :) (Score:5, Funny)
Flcoking Behavior (Score:5, Interesting)
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 (Score:1)
Re:Flcoking Behavior (Score:2, Funny)
However, that isn't quite as wild as watching it done with planes, I'm betting.
Re:Flcoking Behavior (Score:5, Interesting)
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 [aerodyn.org] 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 [davidslife.com], 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 (Score:2)
Re:Flcoking Behavior (Score:2)
Re:Flcoking Behavior (Score:3, Funny)
familiar (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:familiar (Score:1, Offtopic)
Balootooth?
Baloo being the bear, and a gray colored one at that. Although some screen grabs [geocities.com] made him look blue...
I see skynet just got it flying drones (Score:1, Funny)
drone1: incoming slashdot effect!
drone2: take offensive action!
drone3-10: wi-fi targets aquired
??????
boom.
Want funding? (Score:5, Interesting)
Where there's money, though...
Re:Want funding? (Score:2)
Re:Want funding? (Score:1)
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? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Want funding? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Want funding? (Score:1)
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
Re:Want funding? (Score:2, Informative)
Pretty cool idea though - wish I'd gone to that campus now instead of the Southend one.
Oh well...
Re:Want funding? (Score:2)
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
Re:Want funding? (Score:3, Insightful)
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
Re:Want funding? (Score:2)
Re:Want funding? (Score:2)
http://www.whistlestopper.com/forum/archive/index
We know they run linux (Score:1, Funny)
Imagine a Windows 2003 server farm of flying cluster planes.
Re:We know they run linux (Score:2)
Random fly!! (Score:1)
Best and Easier option is to fly Synchronized.
Bullet with Beowulf Wings (Score:3, Funny)
Also, visualize a bombsquad guy in all that padding chasing these things with a net.
Re:Bullet with Beowulf Wings (Score:2)
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 (Score:1, Informative)
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 (Score:2)
Re:Bullet with Beowulf Wings (Score:3, Interesting)
Clusters such as you describe might be the killer defense that could render the strategic bomber vulnerable and obsolete.
Did somebody say webserver? (Score:1, Funny)
It would be interesting to follow the effects of slashdotting on that one, quick somebody post a link!
Can we say Michael Crichton??? (Score:5, Interesting)
My Treo/PDA/Smartphone Optimized Site [nccomp.com]
Re:Can we say Michael Crichton??? (Score:2, Insightful)
I think it's more technology catching up with nature [slashdot.org].
Re:Can we say Michael Crichton??? (Score:2)
Can you overclock this? (Score:4, Funny)
Probably work better in england, here in my part of Texas the red tailed hawks would probably take 'em down.
Red tailed hawks, huh? (Score:2)
Post a link to... (Score:2, Funny)
and let's crash the focker.
this story has everything.... (Score:4, Funny)
PS3 post (Score:1, Offtopic)
Bluetooth Season (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Bluetooth Season (Score:3, Funny)
So... (Score:1, Funny)
Imagine... (Score:1)
Someone mention web server? (Score:1)
Birdbrain? (Score:1)
Interesting factoid: a typical flock of starlings (about 2,000 birds) contains as much brain tissue as a single human.
How good for security? (Score:1)
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.... (Score:2)
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?
obligatory (Score:2)
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 !
This could work with driverless cars (Score:2, Interesting)
* 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 floc
Flying Routers (Score:2)
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? (Score:2, Interesting)
Terminator Prototype? (Score:2)
Where to begin? (Score:4, Funny)
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 [faqs.org]?
Re:Where to begin? (Score:2)
Jethro & Cletus (Score:2)
Cletus: Nope. Why?
Jethro: Got more gadgets in it.
What about in-flight refueling? (Score:2)
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
HIgh Altitiude? (Score:3, Interesting)
Slashdot Effect (Score:2)
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]
+ nano-tech = intelligent fog (Score:2)
I wonder how much that could be miniturised before air friction required a radical re-design.
RedFang (Score:2)
errr US? (Score:1)
Re:errr US? (Score:1)