Collaborative Ad Hoc Aerial Reconnaissance Platform

This paper describes the protocols surrounding a collaborative multi-node unmanned aerial system (UAS) for autonomous aerial reconnaissance. The system utilizes readily-available hardware and extends existing ad hoc communications techniques to provide a method of assembling a secure Mobile Ad hoc Network (MANET) to act as a framework for inter-node communications. The MANET framework facilitates the development of distributed software algorithms for coordinating dynamic, fault tolerant group navigation, allowing the nodes to arrange themselves autonomously into flight formations that provide nearly a three-fold greater range of coverage than that achieved by manual operation of individual aircraft.