Small Drones Team Up to Deliver Large Packages

The Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics in Germany has developed a swarm of ground-based drones known as LoadRunners that can swarm together to deliver heavy loads for indoor applications. The drones look similar to supped-up Roombas that can accelerate up to 22 MPH to deliver packages quickly. The best part? The LoadRunners deliberately crash into loading/unloading docks to deliver its inventory.

Engineers from Georgia Tech has developed a similar system; only the drones fly and won’t intentionally crash to deliver heavy loads. The team believes drones should be able to deliver packages that weigh up to five pounds or less in coming design revisions, but that would limit those deliveries to large drones only, restricting smaller quad and octocopters commonly in use today. To overcome that problem, they have developed a modular solution to allow those smaller drones to move heavy loads.

A specialized algorithm enables smaller drones to work together to move heavy objects; in other words, if a single small drone can’t lift the load, others will come to its aid to get the job done. The system works using a centralized computer system to monitor each of the drones lifting a package, sharing data about their location and the thrust generated by each of their motors. The system then coordinates the issuance of commands, providing navigation and delivery information of the package. The drones then autonomously connect to docking stations installed on the package via IR guidance and use the calculated thrust to move the package to its destination.

The researchers demonstrated the new technique using four small quadrotor drones to lift a box that measured 2' x 2' x 2' and weighed 12 pounds. The team states that the new control algorithm isn’t limited in the number or size of the drones to deliver packages and could even deliver supplies for military applications.