UNL drone researchers receive $250,000 in funding for recon missions

NIMBUS Lab receives much needed funding to advance the Department of Defense.

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN): The Nebraska Intelligent Mobile Unmanned Systems Lab at UNL is currently developing an algorithm to control drone swarms for reconnaissance missions.

The National Strategic Research Institute funded the $250,000 research project to advance drone technology to execute dangerous tasks.

The surveillance-based missions will allow drones in the field to identify enemy threats and presence, bring resources to soldiers and cover time-consuming tasks without manpower.

Led by UNL Associate Professor and Co-Director of NIMBUS, Justin Bradley, the “Star Operation” will work directly with U.S. soldiers.

“So you might think of like a soldier wanting to identify an enemy target or something,” he said. “So this is the idea of deploying a group of vehicles to track those targets to find, identify and track those targets.”

Bradley says there’s no need for individual soldiers to control each drone, as the drones are self-sufficient.

“So there is no central point of command, said Bradley. “These are a special class of algorithms, the vehicles largely automate themselves through these decentralized algorithms.”

The NIMBUS director says they’re still working on safety modifications for the drones but sees this advancement as an enormous feat for the lab.

“We’ve opened a whole new world for what we can accomplish, and we hope to continue to inspire the public that these are sort of safe vehicles that can be used responsibly for useful scientific and other missions to help the general public,” he said.

Once the technology is fully operational, he hopes to collaborate with agencies like the Lincoln Police Department to reduce manpower-related issues.