Collaborating miniature drones for surveillance and reconnaissance

The use of miniature Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), e.g. quadrocopters, has gained great popularity over the last years. Some complex application scenarios for micro UAVs call for the formation of swarms of multiple drones. In this paper a platform for the creation of such swarms is presented. It consists of commercial quadrocopters enhanced with on-board processing and communication units enabling autonomy of individual drones. Furthermore, a generic ground control station has been realized. Different co-operation strategies for teams of UAVs are currently evaluated with an agent based simulation tool. Finally, complex application scenarios for multiple micro UAVs are presented.