As urban air mobility (UAM) becomes more feasible with the development of electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, managing the complex and crowded skies of cities presents new challenges. Traditional air traffic management (ATM) systems, built for a smaller number of larger aircraft, cannot efficiently handle the expected influx of smaller, low-altitude vehicles like drones and eVTOLs. Enter swarm drones—autonomous, networked teams of small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that can work together to manage air traffic, prevent collisions, and optimize airspace usage.
Researchers at the Department of Biological Physics at ELTE (Eötvös Loránd University) have been working on swarm robotics and drone flocks since 2009. In 2014, they created the world’s first autonomously flying quadcopter fleet consisting of at least ten units. The research group has now reached a new milestone, publishing their work on self-driving traffic of one hundred drones in the Swarm Intelligence journal.