The AETOURNOS Project: Using a Flock of UAVs as a Cyber Physical System and Platform for Application-driven Research.

This position paper presents the Airborne Embedded auTonomOUs Robust Network of Objects and Sensors (AETOURNOS) platform. We have two main goals: firstly conducting research in swarming/flocking of UAVs, mixing robotics, wireless sensor and actuator networks, and secondly using this as an application domain and a challenge/demo platform for other researches. After giving an overview of the project context, questions and contributions, we give details about our first attempt to implement an autonomous flocking behavior based on a spring-damper model in simulation, combining our first physical experiments and developments with the potential hardware. The lessons learned help us build a research and action plan for the year to come. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd.