Perdix drones are the main subject of an experimental project conducted by the Strategic Capabilities Office of the

United States Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secur ...

which aims to develop autonomous micro-drones to be used for unmanned

aerial surveillance A surveillance aircraft is an aircraft used for surveillance. They are operated by military forces and other government agencies in roles such as intelligence gathering, battlefield surveillance, airspace surveillance, reconnaissance, observa ...

Origin

The idea of intelligent micro-drones which could communicate with each other was pioneered by a group of students studying at the Aeronautics and Astronautics Department of the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern t ...

in 2011. They were subsequently modified for military use in 2013 under the direction of the

Strategic Capabilities Office. The drone system was named after the character in Greek mythology of the same name.

Autonomy

Each individual drone is not controlled in itself but instead it shares a collective, distributed "brain," travelling in leaderless "swarms," members of which can adapt to changes in drone numbers and remain co-ordinated with their counterparts. Having multiple micro-drones carrying out surveillance is tactically advantageous to simply having one large drone because it is easier for the micro-drones to dodge

air defense systems Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...

. The drones have the ability to collectively determine whether they have completed a mission, leading some commentators to argue that Perdix drones are

artificially intelligent Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech rec ...

Testing

The first operational test of the militarized Perdix drones was conducted by the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School in September 2014 over

Edwards Air Force Base Edwards Air Force Base (AFB) is a United States Air Force installation in California. Most of the base sits in Kern County, but its eastern end is in San Bernardino County and a southern arm is in Los Angeles County. The hub of the base is E ...

. The drones were placed in the flare canisters of

F-16 Fighting Falcon The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is a single-engine multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superiority day fighter, it evolved into a successful ...

and deployed to operate at a lower altitude. A year later, in September 2015, 90 Perdix missions were flown over

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S ...

to test maritime surveillance capabilities. In October 2016, 103 Perdix drones were dropped from three F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets in a joint effort with the US Naval Air Systems Command over their base at China Lake, California. As with earlier tests, the drones were packed into flare canisters for the jets to eject. The test was a success and elicited significant media coverage when announced on 9 January 2017. These tests conclude that the drones can be safely launched at a speed of Mach 0.6 and in temperatures as low as . Photographers shooting a feature of the drones for CBS television program

60 Minutes ''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who chose to set it apart from other news programs by using a unique st ...

reportedly almost abandoned attempts to film the drones as their size and speed made getting a focussed image difficult.

Design

Perdix drones have two sets of

wings A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is exp ...

which are straddled by a plastic body containing a

lithium battery Lithium battery may refer to: * Lithium metal battery, a non-rechargeable battery with lithium as an anode ** Rechargeable lithium metal battery, a rechargeable counterpart to the lithium metal battery * Lithium-ion battery, a rechargeable bat ...

and a small camera. Propulsion is provided by a

propeller A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...

at the rear.

3D printing 3D printing or additive manufacturing is the construction of a three-dimensional object from a CAD model or a digital 3D model. It can be done in a variety of processes in which material is deposited, joined or solidified under computer ...

is used to create Perdix drones' bodies while the onboard software can be updated to enable refinements and improvements to be made without having to manufacture a new drone. The Perdix software is currently in its sixth generation and the Department of Defense aims to have the capability to produce the drones in batches of 1,000 in the near future.

Specifications

The published specifications of Perdix drones are listed below.

General characteristics

* Length: 6.5 inches / 165mm *

Wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan ...

: 11.8 inches / 300mm * Weight: 290 grams * Propeller diameter: 2.6 inches / 66mm

Performance

Maximum speed In aviation, V-speeds are standard terms used to define airspeeds important or useful to the operation of all aircraft. These speeds are derived from data obtained by aircraft designers and manufacturers during flight testing for aircraft Type c ...

: 70 mph / 113 km/h *

Endurance Endurance (also related to sufferance, resilience, constitution, fortitude, and hardiness) is the ability of an organism to exert itself and remain active for a long period of time, as well as its ability to resist, withstand, recover from an ...

: 20 minutes

References

{{reflist Unmanned aerial vehicles of the United States Micro air vehicles 3D printed objects