[hamilc]

There were many (100) drones at the Super Bowl this year. They flew very close together and in formation. Does anybody know how this was done? I doubt that GPS has this kind of position resolution. They must have been using some other kind of position sensing. Anybody kow???

[crof2003]

For 1, it was all pre-recorded and edited.  So, let's just shatter that dream for everyone.

However, they DID actually do it and said that it could be done live and I guess Disney Land/world has a nightly show that uses something similar?

Intel I guess makes these particular drones specifically for this purpose, but I didn't find any details on precisely what they used. I would guess it's GPS for the rough positioning and then it must be a mesh type network of sharing sensor data and then sensors (sonar perhaps?) To get better precise locations.

Or maybe they have to place "beacons" on the ground in precise locations to give sort of a "local GPS" mapping?

In any case, it was really really awesome

[hamilc]

Really, you mean that the drones were not actually being flown in the stadium? The finale sure looked like they were real. I bet the fans were disappointed, yes?

Yes, there is something called differential GPS but I wounder if this is what they were using. Differential GPS gives precision of a few centimeters I think. I wonder how they avoided collision.

[TheOtherCliff]

There are ways of making GPS more accurate and there is swarm technology.  I don't imagine that swarm technology alone is nearly enough for that without GPS.

I recall it was in Germany where they had a similar choreographed set of drone lights with an orchestra outdoors.

[TheOtherCliff]

As mentioned before it is an Intel showpiece