Self-Assembling Autonomous Drones LaunchedNicholas West The military has announced the success of autonomous drones in the following areas: Researchers at ETH Zurich have demonstrated an amazing capability for small robots to self-assemble and take to the air as a multi-rotor helicopter. Maximilian Kriegleder and Raymond Oung worked with Professor Raffaello DAndrea at his research lab to develop the small hexagonal pods that assemble into flying rafts. (Source) For now, the Distributed Flight Array appears somewhat limited, but with an ongoing investment in self-replication and self-assembly, the skys the limit. Here is another good example of self-assembling flying robots with some background about how this trend in Spatially Targeted Communication and Self-Assembly is developing: However, one would be remiss not to point out the darker side of military applications. Here is the Air Force concept for potentially lethal drone swarms in targeted areas. Turning these units loose to make independent decisions might have unintended consequences: Read other articles by Nicholas West Here linkwithin_text=Related Articles: 