Drones

French drone producer is releasing an autonomous swarm idea at CES 2021

Icarus swarms drones

During CES 2021, French drone manufacturer Icarus Swarms announced a new line of UAS products for the security and emergency industries.

A company spokesperson says the new line is “based on a pioneering technology that uses intelligent routing algorithms and microdrons coordinated in a swarm”.

Ikarus officials hope the new technology will “transform” military and police strategies in responding to emergency situations through the use of swarms of up to 50 autonomous drones.

“This allows the drones to act as active aids for the emergency services without distracting their attention and workforce,” says a press release from Icarus. “The use of commercial drones for our drone swarms makes this technology particularly affordable and could therefore be replicated and used by a large number of professionals.”

The Parrot Anafi drones can carry a wide variety of payloads – infrared projectors, radioactive detectors, audio speakers, radio jammers, pyrotechnics and thermal cameras. Swarms of drones with radioactivity sensors can potentially detect dirty bomb threats in events where large crowds gather, such as: B. at the Olympic Games, or assess the radioactivity levels after an explosion to ensure that the emergency services can safely start their operations.

The addition of infrared lights could allow swarms of drones to conduct covert military operations at night. Advanced military units equipped with night vision goggles could see the terrain clearly if the drones illuminate the area with infrared lights.

“We believe this technology has the power to make our response to emergencies more efficient and we look forward to developing and adapting it with our partners in the military and emergency services,” said Jean-Dominique Lauwereins, co-founder of Icarus Swarms.

“It’s been a long and exciting journey to develop this product. We believe this is just the beginning and we have only scratched the surface – swarms of drones are definitely a disruptive technology. “

Swarms of drones have become a growing subsector of the UAS industry and are used for light shows, environmental research, and potential military operations.

Last year, DARPA’s OFFSET (OFFensive Swarm-Enabled Tactics) program tested a swarm of 250 unmanned vehicles in a mock town at Camp Shelby Joint Forces Training Center in Mississippi. The test simulated an urban raid and allowed researchers to study how swarm technologies can provide valuable insights to local forces long before hostilities begin.

In 2019, Seattle-based DroneSeed and the Oregon Nature Conservancy will deploy swarms of up to five aircraft to restore rangelands by re-sowing threatened areas, particularly in sagebrush habitats. Invasive weed species damage the mugwort steppe, which leads to enormous plant loss. In fact, only 50 percent of these plants still exist, and the remaining 50 percent are at risk of being lost in the next 50 years.

Jason is a longtime DroneLife employee with an avid interest in all things technical. He focuses on anti-drone technologies and the public safety sector. Police, fire and search and rescue.

Jason began his career as a journalist in 1996 and has since written and edited thousands of exciting news articles, blog posts, press releases, and online content.

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