Remember the record-breaking flight of the most drones flown simultaneously ever by Intel a few months ago at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics? Well, it’s time to sit up and pay attention.
The leader in technology and innovation have announced that they now intend to break their own record at their 50th anniversary events this coming summer.
In February the company made headlines by using over 1200 specially-designed drones to illuminate the sky in the form of a giant snowboarder and the iconic five rings of the Olympic logo.
Now, a new show is being planned that will involve over 1,500 drones in what the Intel newsroom says “will be a live one-time public show at an Intel site for employees and their families.”
The drones to be used are known as Intel Shooting Star Mini drones, and are made of a soft lightweight frame of flexible plastics and foam. Weighing less than 300 grams each, every drone is equipped with LED lights that can produce over 4 billion colour combinations.
Using proprietary Intel software, algorithms calculate the path for each drone to form shapes that are created from a reference image. The complex formation programming takes from days to weeks, but once completed, allows the entire drone swarm to be controlled by only one pilot.
“Intel has been advancing technology for 50 years. To celebrate that fact and showcase our ongoing innovation, we’re looking to break another drone light show record with our Intel Shooting Star drones and related technology.”
– Anil Nanduri, VP/GM, Intel Drone Team
Intel say the motivation behind the development of this technology is not necessarily entertainment related, and can applied to other applications. In cases of search and rescue, they envision multiple drones seeking lost hikers. Commercial applications are also possible, such as for large infrastructure to improve efficiency of inspection times.
As we look forward, the notion of flying lights and being able to use drones indoors – including in stadiums and theaters, and other indoor venues where GPS signals for positioning are not available – led us to develop new capabilities to fly a fleet of drones inside.
Intel’s shooting star drones also recently wowed the audience at the music festival Coachella, flying over 300 drones.
While only the chosen few will be on hand to witness the record-breaking 50th anniversary event, the general publis are invited to learn more about Intel’s drone technology, both hardware and software at the AUVSI Xponential ‘s Outdoor Unmanned Xperience.