Drone Light Shows

Figure 1: A Drone Swarm used to make a man out of lights

Introduction:

Figure 2: Intro to Intels Drone Light Show

UAVs or "drones" colloquially have long been used as a source of entertainment, be it by hobby pilots of films made using drone shots. A new form of entertainment using drones has recently seen an increase, though it's not a type of entertainment that someone can do with just themselves. Drone light shows have started popping up around the world, such as in Dubai or Intel's light show. They are very impressive and often beautiful to watch, but are much more impressive when you examine how they work.

How do they function:

Figure 3: Intel's Drone Light Show making a rotating earth.

They intense precision and close quarters flying that needs done to make a light show is much to difficult for a human pilot, there would also need to be an incredible number of human pilots to pull off the stunts shown in figure 1. The obvious solution is to use machine learning and AI to pilot the mass. This technique is known as a drone swarm, where either a hub on the ground communicates with all of the drones in the swarm, or airborne hub UAVs communicate with nearby drones. Since the drones are being controlled by an AI they can all communicate extremely quickly with each other, sending other drones the necessary information to avoid collisions.

Light shows also last longer than you would think, especially when you consider the size of the drones being used. This is negated with an interesting trick: there are many more drones in the swarm then are visible at one instance in the light show. When one drone is low on battery, it shuts off it's LEDs and communicates to the hub that it is landing. Then, another drone on the ground takes it's place in the assembly and turns it's LEDs on.

Conclusion:

Drone light shows are an interesting, albeit expensive, new entertainment form for people to enjoy. The technology to develop these light shows is very impressive, and has many uses outside of the entertainment industry. They are a great way to get the populace interested in the possibilities of unmanned aerial systems, and hopefully continue to grow and bring more people into the aviation field.