CU team taps drones to search for lost hikers, study wildlife

BOULDER» A team of University of Colorado engineers has developed new drone “swarming” technology that allows a single operator to control multiple unmanned aircraft simultaneously, which would allow a single operator to cover more ground while monitoring hiking areas or natural preserves marked by vast, rugged landscapes.

The CU team, in collaboration with the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, spent three weeks in August testing the technology at the Pawnee National Grassland northeast of Greeley. The project was granted the first-ever approval by the Federal Aviation Administration to allow multiple aircraft to be manned by a single pilot.

Simply put, the “purpose of the technology is to locate moving radio beacons and follow them,” said Eric Frew of CU’s Ann and H.J. Smead Aerospace Engineering Sciences, who is leading the project.

The team of CU engineering undergraduates, graduates and professionals developed a brigade of drones, intent upon hunting out beacon signals emitting from the grasslands. Their experiments would deploy up to three hightech drones that were controlled by an operator on the ground.

Controlling multiple aircraft simultaneously is no easy feat. “You need three components to make it work: meshed networking, good interface and the autonomy of cooperative control,” said Frew.

These complex flights are made possible with help from the Korean team based in Daejon, South Korea, while the CU team executes the action from Colorado.

“Our teams have been working together over the past two and half years to develop the algorithms and software to make this system work,” said Steve Borenstein, lead engineer on the project and pilot for the CU team.

Previously, the FAA required every drone to have its own pilot, as well as one observer to watch for other air traffic as the drone was being operated.

The university’s groundbreaking research is matched only by few examples of coordinated drone flights, such as Lady Gaga’s drone-controlled light show at the Super Bowl.

This is the first time, however, the FAA has given permission for recurring flights of this kind in the U.S. National Airspace System.

In the future, swarming drone technology could be used in search-and-rescue missions as well as wildlife surveying. The CU research team is working with Colorado Parks & Wildlife, Boulder County Parks and Open Space and several other partners to develop ways in which beacon-toting backcountry enthusiasts and tagged wildlife can be tracked more efficiently.