Thanks to the new technology, one person will be able to control an army of 130 drones at the same time
The U.S. Department of Defense has helped develop technology that allows one person to control 130 drones for military operations.
The project is backed by the defense company Raytheon, which cooperates with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). According to the company’s press release, the team has successfully tested its cloudy new technology in urban environments indoors and outdoors.
Called OFFensive Swarm-Enabled Tactics (OFFSET), the swarm consisted of 130 physical drones as well as 30 simulated drones, whatever that means. Raytheon claims that the software and hardware used in the swarm allows the operator to control the swarm with “minimal training.”
“Drone swarm management changes the way an operator or group of operators think about drones,” Shane Clark, principal investigator, OFFSET, Raytheon. “The conclusions from this exercise help us identify the inflection points between usefulness and manageability.”
Virtual reality command post
An operator who controls a swarm will not do it at a table with a joystick. Instead, they will use a virtual reality interface that will allow them to view each drone individually. This creates an “interactive virtual representation of the environment,” the release says.
“You can look behind a building to access, for example, the location of drones, and use a virtual reality environment to see if your mission is viable,” Clark explained.
The team also created a speech interface that allows operators to give voice commands to the swarm. Clark added that this will allow the operator to “act quickly while maintaining situational awareness.”
So yes, a swarm of drones flying to war is compelling in itself, albeit grim. However, knowing that one person is controlling them with VR and voice commands is simply amazing.
