Autonomous Distributed Atmospheric Measurement Acquisition (ADAMA) – A Multi-Agent sUAS Mission
Edward E. Adcock, B. Danette Allen, James H. Neilan, Matthew P. Vaughn, Ralph Williams, Zachary R. Johns, Brian Edward Duvall, Nicholas H. Rymer · AIAA Scitech 2020 Forum · 2020
A multi-agent mission has been completed using sUASs and micro UAVs. These vehicles were used to make in-situ meteorological measurements while swarming to a waypoint. This was accomplished using four “motherships” that each carried 28 micro-UAVs, with a total of 112 of these small UAVs dropped. Each mothership UAS flew to 1200 ft. and then released its payload. The micro-UAVs then glided autonomously to orbit around a single waypoint while telemetering data real-time and also logging data onboard. One advantage of using these micro-UAVs is the low cost lends to their disposable nature. This enables higher risk missions without the fear of high value equipment loss. The purpose of this mission was to experimentally resolve the capability of a fully autonomous swarm, of such large numbers, and collect meaningful data in the lower troposphere. These data can prove useful to future NASA Earth Science missions for such research as cloud composition studies. With the success of this mission, this paper will demonstrate the feasibility of a distributed network of mobile meteorological sensors that will expand the capabilities of future NASA earth science missions.