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Spinoff story
Swarming Technology Lets Drones Work as a Team
A real-world story of NASA technology finding a life beyond the mission.
About this technology
Overview
As U.S. skies become more crowded, NASA wants to help aircraft coordinate with each other autonomously. Langley Research Center granted SBIR funding to help Heron Systems Inc., based in California, Maryland, advance its Multi-Agent Cooperative Engagement (MACE) technology—software and hardware that allows drones to cooperatively allocate tasks and resources and plan flight paths without the help of an operator. MACE has immediate applications in military training and could soon help monitor crops and infrastructure before eventually helping to manage U.S. airspace.