{"id":203,"date":"2016-05-26T11:56:22","date_gmt":"2016-05-26T11:56:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/headlines\/?p=203"},"modified":"2023-01-03T16:25:22","modified_gmt":"2023-01-03T21:25:22","slug":"what-do-drones-and-one-of-alfred-hitchcocks-best-ever-movies-have-in-common","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/headlines\/2016\/05\/26\/what-do-drones-and-one-of-alfred-hitchcocks-best-ever-movies-have-in-common\/","title":{"rendered":"What do drones and one of Alfred Hitchcock’s best-ever movies have in common?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

What do quadcopter drones and one of Alfred Hitchcock’s best-ever movies <\/a>have in common? Swarms!
\n
\nWhile swarming drones sound like a high-tech version of\u00a0The Birds,<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>these are swarms of helpful <\/em>drones. <\/p>\n

<\/a>

Image Credit: SyFy.com<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Drones are constantly in the news for causing problems, from drones crashing into the U.S. Open<\/a>, to hindering firefighters<\/a> in California. The FAA estimates that 1.6 million drones were sold in the US in 2015, and over 300,000 were\u00a0registered<\/a> with the the FAA in the first month of the registry. (Here’s the spreadsheet <\/a>of all drones registered through May 12, 2016.\u00a0Fun fact: 57 were registered in Natick, MA, the town\u00a0where MathWorks is located.)<\/p>\n

With all of the news coverage on drones, I was curious\u00a0when I came across\u00a0a\u00a0TED Talk by Dr. Vijay Kumar<\/a>\u00a0about the GRASP Laboratory and the swarming robotic drones.<\/p>\n

At\u00a0the GRASP Laboratory at University of Pennsylvania, they design autonomous aerial robotic drones. The addition of sensors, laser scanners, and cameras needed for autonomous operation added weight and expense to the robot. So the GRASP Laboratory followed nature\u2019s lead, and designed micro-quadcopters modeled after honeybees. They are smaller and less expensive. They can fly farther and faster, and the lower inertia makes them highly maneuverable.<\/p>\n

Taking another hint from nature, GRASP enables these aerial robots to work in a swarm. They interact with each other, and can work in concert.<\/p>\n

The swarming robots have practical application in agriculture, working together to create detailed models of crops. The information they gather tells the farmer what inputs each plant or tree needs, such as water, fertilizer and pesticides. The robots also count the number of fruits on each plant, enabling the farmer to estimate the yield and accurately plan and optimize the downstream production chain. The team from GRASP predicts that the use of these robot swarms can increase yield by up to 10% and reduce the use of water and other resources by 25%.<\/p>\n