This presentation introduces Koma Robotics, a company spun off from university research in Budapest, specializing in intelligent drone swarm technology. The speaker details their "open core" business model, which leverages the ArduPilot ecosystem to develop advanced swarm solutions. The core of their research is inspired by collective motion in nature, leading to algorithms for two primary swarm behaviors: synchronized, decentralized flocking and dense traffic management for collision avoidance, demonstrated with up to 100 real drones and 5,000 in simulation.
The talk provides an in-depth look at their hardware and software stack, highlighting the proprietary "Flock Control" algorithm running on onboard computers and the open-core ground control station, Skybrush. This platform is designed for managing large-scale, multi-UAV operations across various applications, including spectacular drone light shows, precision agriculture, and dual-use surveillance systems. The presentation concludes with a live demonstration of the Skybrush software and the announcement of a new Q&A-style log analysis tool for drone tuning and diagnostics.
From Flocking Birds to Flying Robots: The Skybrush Drone Swarm Platform
0:00:05 Introduction to Koma Robotics: The speaker represents Koma Robotics, a company founded 10 years ago by university researchers in Budapest, with the goal of developing intelligent drone swarms for societal benefit.
0:01:43 Open Core Model & ArduPilot: The company operates on an "open core" business model, building its technology on top of open-source platforms like ArduPilot. They are self-funded and have grown organically.
0:01:59 Inspired by Nature: Their work is inspired by the "collective motion" of self-organizing systems in nature, such as flocks of starlings, aiming to replicate this behavior with drone swarms.
0:03:15 Advanced Swarm Capabilities: Koma Robotics has developed algorithms for two key swarm behaviors:
Flocking: Drones communicate directly with each other via an ad-hoc Wi-Fi network to synchronize their movement without a central ground station.
Decentralized Traffic Management: Drones with individual routes can navigate densely packed airspace and autonomously avoid collisions.
0:05:04 Hardware and Software Stack: Their system consists of a robust hardware and software stack.
Hardware: Pixhawk-family autopilots, Odroid onboard computers, Wi-Fi, and RTK GPS for precision.
Software: ArduCopter and MAVLink for low-level control, their proprietary "Flock Control" for high-level swarming, and the Skybrush ground station.
0:06:35 Critical Role of Simulation: They use a full software-in-the-loop (SITL) simulation framework to test algorithms safely and cost-effectively, using an open-source tool (AP_Autopilot_Swarm_Launcher) to run hundreds of simulated drones at once.
0:08:50 The Skybrush Ecosystem: Skybrush is their open-core ground control station, optimized for multi-UAV operations. It features a server backend, a live frontend, and supports a large community on Discord.
0:10:25 Diverse Real-World Applications: Their technology is used in several fields:
Drone Light Shows: They and their clients create complex drone shows worldwide, including one for the British royal family.
Precision Agriculture: A partner company uses Skybrush to power a crop-spraying drone with advanced terrain-following capabilities.
Surveillance & R&D: They are involved in projects to build distributed surveillance systems using both aerial (UAV) and ground (UGV) vehicles.
0:11:54 Skybrush Live Demonstration: The software allows an operator to plan missions, upload them to a fleet of drones, control them individually or as a group, monitor their status in real-time, and adapt the mission on the fly.
0:14:10 New Log Analyzer Tool: The speaker announces the beta release of loglan.skybrush.io, a new Q&A-style tool designed to simplify drone log analysis for tuning, diagnostics, and error checking.