An experiment led by scientists from Zhejiang University presented a swarm of 10 drones flying through a bamboo forest in China, navigating between trunks and autonomously choosing the best flight path through the forest.

UAV swarms have been tested in the past, but either in an unobstructed open environment or with a programmed location of those obstacles.

“This is the first time a drone swarm has successfully flown outdoors in an unstructured environment in the wilderness. ” – said robotics expert Enrica Soria.

The palm-sized robots are specially designed, equipped with depth cameras, height sensors and an onboard computer. The biggest success was an intelligent algorithm that included collision avoidance, flight efficiency and coordination within the swarm.

Swarms can be used during natural disasters as these drones do not depend on an external infrastructure such as GPS.

A pack can turn into a weapon. The Pentagon has repeatedly expressed its interest and is conducting its own tests.

“Military research is not clearly transferred to the rest of the world, so it’s hard to imagine at what stage of their development they are.” – says Soria.