The Shooting Star is a

quadcopter A quadcopter or quadrotor is a type of helicopter with four rotors. Although quadrotor helicopters and convertiplanes have long been flown experimentally, the configuration remained a curiosity until the arrival of the modern UAV or drone. ...

drone Drone most commonly refers to: * Drone (bee), a male bee, from an unfertilized egg * Unmanned aerial vehicle * Unmanned surface vehicle, watercraft * Unmanned underwater vehicle or underwater drone Drone, drones or The Drones may also refer to: ...

designed for light shows by

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the devel ...

. It is constructed of

Styrofoam Styrofoam is a trademarked brand of closed-cell extruded polystyrene foam (XPS), commonly called "Blue Board", manufactured as foam continuous building insulation board used in walls, roofs, and foundations as thermal insulation and water barrier ...

and lightweight plastics; and it has built-in

light-emitting diode A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. The color of the light ( ...

s (LEDs) for display purposes. Large numbers of Shooting Star drones can be controlled by a single computer and operator that can create more than four billion color combinations from the built-in LEDs, with the system's algorithms controlling the choreography and optimizing the flight paths.

Use

In November 2016, 500 of the drones were used in a light show to set the new

Guinness World Record ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

for the "Most Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) airborne simultaneously". The drones were used for the

Super Bowl LI halftime show The Super Bowl LI Halftime show took place on February 5, 2017 at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas, as part of Super Bowl LI. Lady Gaga headlined the show, with no special guests (the first since Super Bowl XLIV), performing a medley of her songs, i ...

performance by

Lady Gaga Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta ( ; born March 28, 1986), known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She is known for her image reinventions and musical versatility. Gaga began performing as a teenag ...

in 2017, in which 300 Shooting Stars formed an

American flag The national flag of the United States of America, often referred to as the ''American flag'' or the ''U.S. flag'', consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the c ...

in the sky. Because of the tight regulations during the show and establishment of a no-drone flight zone, the drone show was recorded beforehand. Josh Walden of Intel's New Technologies Group stated that one possible application of the technology is to use large numbers of drones to perform a visual inspection much more quickly than a single unit. During Art Basel Miami Beach 2017 Intel worked together with Studio Drift and BMW with a performative artwork with a flying swarm of 300 drones 1,218 of these drones were used for the

2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony The opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics was held at the Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium in Pyeongchang, South Korea on 9 February 2018. It began at 20:00 KST and finished at approximately 22:20 KST. The Games were officially opened by ...

, which became the largest drone show in the history of the world.

References

External links

Intel website on Shooting Star light shows
{{Intel Intel products Multi-robot systems Quadcopters Unmanned aerial vehicles of the United States