Multiple rotorcraft micro air vehicles (MAV) able to operate as a reconfigurable communications network are being studied by the University of Maryland for the US Army. The miniature helicopters would fly en masse through a building, each acting as a node in a network relaying sensor information to a control station. If a wall blocks transmission, the pack would re-route the data through the network back to the operator console.
Stability and control testing is under way with the Micor 2 prototype MAV, a micro-helicopter with contra-rotating rotor and no tail rotor.
It carries a small communications unit called the Mote, which uses Bluetooth 2 wireless technology to transmit high-bandwidth signals up to 30m (100ft). “We have had a Micor 2 witha Mote on board and communicated to another [ground-based] Mote that was linked to a base station,” says graduate student Joseph Conway, the research team’s head of avionics.
The MAV transmitted inertial data and received commands from the ground-based Mote.
Source: Flight International