The DOD is testing a swarm of autonomous, 3-D printed drones

[Judi Lynn]

Source: IDG News Service

The DOD is testing a swarm of autonomous, 3-D printed drones
The drones are called "Perdix" and were originally designed by engineering students at MIT

By Magdalena Petrova |
Video Correspondent, IDG News Service | JAN 10, 2017 3:05 PM PT


The Department of Defense is testing low-cost, autonomous, micro-drones for low-altitude intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions.

The drones, dubbed Perdix, operate as a swarm and are not individually pre-programmed. Instead, they act as a collective organism with one distributed brain for decision-making, the DOD said in a statement on Monday.

“Because every Perdix communicates and collaborates with every other Perdix, the swarm has no leader and can gracefully adapt to drones entering or exiting the team,” says William Roper, director of the Strategic Capabilities Office of the DOD.

The drones are meant to be controlled in much the same manner as a coach would guide a sports team. The operator orders a broad objective, and the drones communally decide how best to execute the plan.

Read more: http://www.pcworld.com/article/3156571/robots/the-dod-is-testing-a-swarm-of-autonomous-3-d-printed-drones.html#tk.rss_all

[Ligyron]

1. I can't confirm that it's true

but I am given to understand that there are serious people involved in A.I. research who refuse to say anything bad about it and work

studiously to develop it, convinced that if they don't, when A.I. is fully functioning autonomously it (they?) will master time travel and

come back to kill or punish all those who opposed it.

Notice it is the dod doing this...

I'm sure I will see some very interesting stuff in the time I have left on earth.

[Bayard]

2. Yikes

Sounds a lot like the Michael Crichton book, "Prey", :

In the Nevada desert, an experiment has gone horribly wrong. A cloud of nanoparticles—micro-robots—has escaped from the laboratory. This cloud is self-sustaining and self-reproducing. It is intelligent and learns from experience. For all practical purposes, it is alive. It has been programmed as a predator. It is evolving swiftly, becoming more deadly with each passing hour. Every attempt to destroy it has failed.

And we are the prey."

[miyazaki]

4. Ha, I remember that one. Ever read "Blood Music"?

I think it predates "Prey" where an overly ambitious bio-engineer creates living cells that collectively think. He smuggles it out of the lab by injecting himself with his creation. A singularity occurs as his creation spreads like a virus encompassing the globe with superhighways of flesh containing a giant hive mind. Ah something like that.

Fascinating and terrifying for sure.

[machoneman]

5. Yes, I also....

read that book. Wasn't their a SF movie that used the same idea? An underground facility where science went wrong?

[Locrian]

3. what could go wrong?