Intel's Superbowl Drone Coordination

Superbowl 2017 was quite a rollercoaster for fans of both teams and kept viewers at the edge of their seat. The halftime show was really well done and Lady Gaga did a great job. At one point, she was singing and the camera shows lights behind her which were "dancing" in the sky, eventually forming a simple American Flag. Most people might have simply enjoyed the show, but for those of us who like tech, we were curious what might have been going on behind the scenes - was it a net with LEDs? Was it a projection, or even an illusion? It turns out that it was actually 300 drones, each equipped with powerful RGB LEDs, which takes the credit. So how was it done? Most UAV designers would immediately think of technology to coordinate between the UAVs, requiring complex communication, a variety of sensors etc. It turns out that the company behind it is quite well known - Intel. The drones used are elegant in their simplicity - simple snap together parts, mostly foam, a rudimentary enclosure for the propellers (for safety) and flight controller. So the question remains - how was Intel able to coordinate them all? It was a bit of a "brute force" approach where the drones did not actually communicate with one another, but rather with a central system, and they flew in mostly predetermined paths. Nevertheless, we congratulate Intel on this - and they are breaking new ground, and we look forward to what they will do next. Source: newsroom.intel.com/news-releases/intel-drones-light-lady-gaga-performance-pepsi-zero-sugar-super-bowl-li-halftime/