WeatherHive: Distributed Swarm Microcosm Wind Forecasting using NanoUAVs

A mortar team positions itself on an urban battlefield. Theyre tasked to support operators in the urban landscape. Unknown wind conditions and the probability of civilian casualties complicate the mission. An Army engineer pulls a 20 pound canister from his teams MRAP, sets it in the middle of a dirt road. He unscrews the top and starts an app on his ATAK tablet. The desired wind field measurement area was pre-programmed into the app during mission planning, so he merely presses the launch button. 120 quadcopter nano-drones stream out of the canister four at a time, each weighing 50 grams, and measuring 5 inches across. During the next ten minutes, the nano-drone swarm measures wind intensity in the specified area. They downlink data to the app via a mesh network. During the flight, the engineer unfurls a funnel shaped fixture and places it atop the canister. Upon mission completion, the vehicles return to the canister through the funnel. Quickly they are stacked back into the launch canister. The vehicles recharge and are ready to fly again in 20 minutes. This is the WeatherHive nano-UAV swarm, developed by GreenSight Agronomics teamed with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratorys Swarm Research Group.