Imitation "Firefly" communication drone: It is not afraid of electromagnetic suppression and can fly cooperatively even if it is interfered with!

As night falls, countless fireflies bravely chasing love emit "flashes" at different rhythms and frequencies, conveying messages in a way that only they can understand. What would be the effect if a swarm of drones also communicated in this form?

Figure 1Firefly scene generated by TeleChat of China Telecom Artificial Intelligence Research Institute

Recently, China Telecom Li Xuelong and the Institute of Optoelectronics and Intelligence of Northwestern Polytechnical University have made progress in research on "firefly" communication drones:By imitating the communication method of fireflies,Use optical communicationand intelligent information processingand other technologies to realize the information transmissionbetween dronesunderelectromagnetic interference.

Video address://m.sbmmt.com/link/004a68efcee088ddeaaca5c5a3afaa2f

Drone clusters have become technology The most cutting-edge topic in the field has repeatedly appeared in science fiction movies and actual combat. However, UAV swarms have a fatal weakness. They mainly rely on radio communications, have obvious electromagnetic characteristics, are easily recognized by the outside world, and are also susceptible to the influence of the electromagnetic environment. Experiments have shown that high-power electromagnetic interference suppression and navigation deception have obvious effects on UAV swarms. The reason why the drone show went out of control and crashed, and even the Russian troops in Syria were able to thwart enemy drone swarm attacks many times was because the drone communication link was interfered with or cut off.

So how does the drone cluster deal with the electromagneticinterference that"draws fuel from the bottom of the cauldron, breaks the link and hits the source"?

Li Xuelong’s research team proposed an innovative solution:By modulating the lighting equipment on the drone, it emits a light signal that changes light and dark millions of times per second, and transmits it on another drone Photoelectric sensors are used on UAVs to capture light signals and analyze them intelligently, realizing short-distance information transmission like fireflies flashing and communicating, and completing cooperative flight between UAVs based on optical links.Since the transmission of optical signals is not affected by the electromagnetic environment, intermodulation and mutual interference will not occur, and the anti-interference ability is strong. In addition, its transmitting power is low and it generates almost no heat, making it suitable for small UAVs with limited load capacity and energy.

Picture2Imitation Firefly Communication UAV Information Interaction Process

The "Firefly" communication drone mainly has three technical characteristics: intelligence, reliability and stability.

First of all, in order to establish and maintain a stable optical communication link, the research team used the strapdown UAV gimbal camera and communication to emit light sources, and adopted the team’s self-developedfast dynamic target intelligent tracking algorithmCapture the target to be communicated and emit light source to follow the camera rotation. Wherever the camera goes, the beam follows.

Secondly, in order to overcome the impact of ambient lighting on the performance of optical communication links, the research team proposeda highly redundanterror-correction coding technologyto reduce the information The bit error rate of transmission improves the reliability of information transmission between drones.

Finally, in view of the impact of changes in the relative position of the communication transceiver end on the quality of information transmission when the drone is flying, the research team proposedmulti-angle beam divergence link performance enhancement technology, which reduces The probability of link interruption improves the stability of information transmission between drones.

Picture3 Imitation Firefly communication droneField test

Imitation "Firefly" Communication drones are an attempt and development in the context of the widespread use of radio for communication. In the future, the research team will continue to conduct research on communication distance, speed, stability and environmental adaptability of imitated "Firefly" communication drones, and in the ## "low-altitude economy"represented #localsecurityis applied in scenarios.Team leader introduction:

Li Xuelong, chief technology officer (CTO) and chief scientist of China Telecom, deputy director of the Academic Committee of Northwestern Polytechnical University. Mainly focusing on artificial intelligence, local security, image processing, and imaging.

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