CU Boulder team taps drone technology to help track lost hikers, study wildlife - Boulder Daily Camera

University of Colorado researchers have developed an advanced drone "swarming" technology that allows a single operator to control multiple unmanned aircraft for a variety of tasks, which could include searching for lost hikers or studying wildlife. (Courtesy Photo / Daily Camera)

Drones are, arguably, among the most important recent technological innovations, changing the way people receive packages, combat wildfires, maximize agricultural production and more.

As drones continue to expand their potential, researchers are discovering new jobs for them in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.

A team of University of Colorado engineers has developed a new drone "swarming" technology, which allows a single operator to control multiple unmanned aircraft simultaneously. This may help cover more ground, or air, while monitoring hiking areas and natural preserves marked by vast and rugged landscapes.

The CU team, in collaboration with the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, spent three weeks in August testing this new technology at the Pawnee National Grassland northeast of Greeley. The project was granted the first-ever approval by the Federal Aviation Administration to allow multiple aircraft to be manned by a single pilot.

Simply put, the "purpose of the technology is to locate moving radio beacons and follow them," according to Associate Professor Eric Frew of CU's Ann and H.J. Smead Aerospace Engineering Sciences, who is leading the project.

The team of CU engineering undergraduates, graduates and professionals developed a brigade of drones, intent upon hunting out beacon signals emitting from the grasslands. Their experiments would deploy up to three high-tech drones that were controlled by an operator on the ground.

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Controlling multiple aircraft simultaneously is no easy feat.

"You need three components to make it work: meshed networking, good interface and the autonomy of cooperative control," said Frew.

In other words, meshed networking allows the drones to respond to one another in the air and send signals down to the ground station. On the ground, good interface is necessary, in the form of displays for operators, to control their aircraft without any confusion. The autonomy of cooperative control refers to the way the drones interact with each other in the air, coordinating their movement so that they can perform safely and efficiently.

These complex flights are made possible with help from the Korean team based in Daejon, South Korea, while the CU team executes the action from Colorado.

"Our teams have been working together over the past two and half years to develop the algorithms and software to make this system work," said Steve Borenstein, lead engineer on the project and pilot for the CU team.

Previously, the FAA required every drone to have its own pilot, as well as one observer to watch for other air traffic as the drone was being operated. The university's groundbreaking research is matched only by few examples of coordinated drone flights, such as Lady Gaga's drone-controlled light show at the Super Bowl.

This is the first time, however, the FAA has given permission for recurring flights of this kind in the U.S. National Airspace System.

In the future, swarming drone technology could be used in search-and-rescue missions as well as wildlife surveying. The CU research team is working with Colorado Parks & Wildlife, Boulder County Parks and Open Space and several other partners to develop ways in which beacon-toting backcountry enthusiasts and tagged wildlife can be tracked more efficiently.

"Having multiple drones in the air, coordinating with one another to track the same target, will allow for multiple angles to triangulate exactly where the signal is coming from — whether it be a lost hiker or a tagged mountain lion," Frew said.

Drones may also come equipped with cameras, to gather more precise information on the subjects they hone in on. This willan entire array of possibilitiesfor researchers, enabling them to track wildlife more efficiently and in a less intrusive manner.

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