AI glossary · Basic · Robotics & physical AI · Defense & security
Drone swarm
A drone swarm is a way of operating multiple drones that exchange information with one another, move together like a single group and divide up tasks. Instead of a person flying each drone individually, the whole group is given a goal and the drones coordinate with each other as they move.
About this term
- Level
- Basic · Technical terms you often meet in AI news
- Category
- Industry AI
- Fields
- Robotics & physical AI
- Industries
- Defense & security
- Added
- 2026-10-10
How it works
Each drone carries sensors and a small computer to determine its own position and surroundings. The drones share their positions and status with one another over wireless communication, keep their distance to avoid collisions, and divide up assigned areas or roles. There are two main ways to operate them: centralized control, in which a ground control system issues instructions to all drones, and decentralized operation, in which each drone decides for itself based on information from neighboring drones. AI is mainly used for tasks such as path planning, role allocation and recognizing targets in video.
Centralized vs. decentralized
CentralizedControl system gives instructions
- Full picture in one place
- Vulnerable if communication drops
- Easy for humans to manage
DecentralizedDrones coordinate and decide
- Mission continues if some drop out
- Moves using neighbor drone data
- Collective behavior hard to predict and validate
공통 In both cases, multiple drones share their positions and status and divide up roles
Why it matters
Searching or monitoring a wide area, which is hard for a single drone, can be finished faster when several drones share the work. Even if a few break down or drop out, the rest can take over their roles, so the overall mission does not easily stop. The fact that one person can manage many drones also reduces the operational burden. For these reasons, there is strong interest not only in defense but also in civilian fields such as disaster search, agriculture and performances.
Things to know
In defense, drone swarms connect directly to the question of "how far do humans intervene in decisions." Many countries and international discussions emphasize the principle that humans must exercise meaningful control over critical decisions such as the use of force. Because the whole group moves while influencing one another, a malfunction or communication jamming affecting a single drone can spread into unexpected collective behavior, which makes testing and validation especially difficult. Who is responsible when an accident occurs, whether the operator, the developer or the commander, is also an issue still being worked out.
Example
The easiest civilian example to see is a drone light show, in which many drones form letters or pictures in the night sky. At disaster sites, several drones fly over assigned sections around collapsed buildings and send video to the command center to search for survivors. In defense, operational concepts are being discussed in which, for missions such as reconnaissance and surveillance, humans set the targets and boundaries and the drones divide up roles within them.