The Ego Network of a ‘Drone Swarm’
From civilian toys use to military weapons, drones are quite a hot topic in today’s world, and someone seems to be doing something new with a drone every day. The use of drones in the military is fairly well known, where pilot-less vehicles perform tasks ranging from surveillance to actually intervening with force. One drone technology that you may not be aware of however is the Pentagon’s new “swarm drones”. Currently being tested, these swarms consist of hundreds of micro drones that are dropped out of a modern fighter jet. The drones themselves are small, cheap and 3D printed, making them a fairly disposable resource. The swarms’ main function is to provide surveillance at a low altitude, and they do this as a group. Instead of telling each individual drone what to do, the drones are given a single broad task, and act as a single hive mind. Therefore the drones are mostly autonomous in terms of the tasks they are completing. The drones are only assigned to surveillance missions at the current moment, but the article touches on how upon future improvement, the drones may be used as weapons. This could possibly consist of each drone containing an explosive, turning each drone into a small bomb, which can in turn overwhelm enemies on the battlefield.
The drones’ hive mind can be compared to an ego network and in this case the ego would be the task that the drones are given. Going from there, each node in the network would be one of the micro drones. Though the network, the drones then communicate with each other to collectively pass on instructions and updates. With more edges connecting each drone, the network can more effectively pass on information to one another. So, ideally, each drone in this ego network would be connected to provide the most efficient transfer of data.