Near future could see vehicles self assembling and flying

And, this scenario is not in the movies. If we believe the ongoing research at the Institute of Dynamic Systems and Control at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zürich, a system called Distributed Flight Array is underway. In this researchers are developing miniature vehicles that can self assemble, taking off vertically and flying as a stable array. This system is a flying platform, which consists of wheeled vehicles. Each vehicle is driven by a fixed ducted propeller and has its own motor, flight control system, computer, sensors and wireless communication systems.

self seembling vehicles1

self seembling vehicles2

The individual vehicles can drive, dock on the ground and fly. But, the flying takes place in an erratic way unless all the vehicles are joined together. As this happens, the combination becomes sophisticated flight platform, which becomes capable of a coordinated flight. Right now the system is in concept stage, but taking in consideration the success so far, it could be useful to lift heavy objects. In addition to this, there is also a Flying Machine Arena (FMA) project underway. It is a 10m cube of indoor space envisioned specially for testing the autonomous vehicles.

Via: Physorg