The links below enable you to download publications and video clips related to the Flying Flock research project

MPhil Thesis 2002- Collective Locomotion in a Group of Small Scale aerial Robots

SMC02 - SMC02-INV-322.pdf

TIMR2001 - Towards Intelligent Mobile Robots. 3rd British Conference on Autonomous Mobile Robotics and Autonomous Systems. FlyingFlock2001

This section contains links to White Dwarf Linux which we use on our new Aerobot Blimps. There is also a link to the PCMCIA package that has been hacked to work with the aerobot hardware (this was a problem specific to Cirrus controller chips not setting the correct VCC for CF cards) although it may have been fixed in a recent release. The only files that have been changed are cs.c and i82365.c and all changes have been documented. The latest driver package for the Spectrum24 CF LAN card is also included for download. There is a PDF file which explains how to set up WD Linux on the DIMM PC in a 32Mbyte partition (it will fit in less than 16Mbytes) and the PCMCIA stuff (for the Aerobot).

Aerobot WD Linux How-To

pcmcia_cs_uwe.tar.gz

pcmcia-cs-3.1.33-i386-4.tgz

specmopatch.tar.gzp

pcmcia_install.tar.gz

Video of a single aerobot (in silver) following a remote controlled blimp (in white). This video is sped up by a factor of ten to make it easier to see what is happening. The following aerobot is detecting an infrared beacon attached to the radio controlled blimp: Clip1 file size 4.4Mb in mpv format.

Overhead video of three aerobots homing on a static beacon. If they cannot see the beacon they will follow the transmission of another aerobot. Clip 2 file size 3.0Mb in mpv format.

Overhead video of four aerobots homing on a static beacon starting in a low signal to noise domain. Two of the aerobots (blue and green) have a slightly longer sensing range due to the variability in the hardware. These two blimps pick up the beacon signal first and start to move in, whilst simultaneously transmitting their own local signal which attracts the other two aerobots. This technique is termed Secondary Swarming and could be very useful when operating with hundreds or thousands of micro / nano robots in the future. Clip 3 file size 1.1Mb in mpv format.

Video clip of five aerobots following a moving beacon. The aerobots are using a secondary swarming technique to help them all stay within range of the beacon. Clip 4 file size 3.7Mb mpg format