Much of the discussion and fear of armed unmanned vehicles ignores a central fact. Aerial drones like the Predator or Reaper are operated by two-man human teams, a pilot to steer the drone, and a sensor operator to control the various mechanical eyes and ears. The boats that participated in the event on the James River were able to sense one another as well as other vessels, and execute complicated “swarm” maneuvers, with a bare minimum of guidance. These boats are not your average drones.

“Think about it as replicating the functions that a human boat pilot would do. We’ve taken that capability and extended it to multiple [unmanned surface vehicles] operating together… within that, we’ve designed team behaviors,” Robert Brizzolara, the manager of the SWARM program for ONR, told reporters.

At one point in his briefing, Klunder held up a cube about the size of a paper weight of circuits stacked on top of one another. The unit is called the Control Architecture for Robotic Agent Command and Sensing or CARACaS. It allows the boats to “operate autonomously, without a sailor physically needing to be at the controls—including operating in sync with other unmanned vessels; choosing their own routes; swarming to interdict enemy vessels; and escorting/protecting naval assets,” according to an ONR description. “Any boat can be fitted with a kit that allows it to act autonomously and swarm on a potential threat.”

Though 13 was the number needed for that particular exercise, Klunder envisions future maneuvers with 20 or even 30 boats. He said the system will be fully operational next year.

Where Do Robotic Swarms Come From?

NASA originally designed the system for the Mars Rover. ONR adapted it for the Navy’s needs but the philosophical history of swarm robotics can be traced to this 1995 paper in which artificial intelligence researchers James Kennedy and Russell Eberhardt argue that the collective behaviors that birds, fish, insects, and humans display in response to rewards or threats could be captured mathematically and brought to bear on improving artificially intelligent entities in a simulation.

The “social sharing of information among conspeciates [sic] offers an evolutionary advantage,” they observe, borrowing a bit of wisdom from biologist E.O. Wilson. Kennedy and Eberhardt lay out some the major tenets for writing algorithms to mimic natural flocking or schooling behavior. It’s a matter of quickly rating different known variables, threat, reward, and environment. The growing availability of small drones have transformed robot swarms from an obscure academic concept into a YouTube sensation. Consider this 2012 demo showing how University of Pennsylvania researchers turned a series of small robotic quad helicopters into musicians, which got 3 million views.

YouTube swarm stunts seem to grow by size and complexity faster than companies can make smartphones. Last month, Harvard researcher Radhika Nagpal demonstrated the largest robotic swarm, 1,024 small bots collaborating wordlessly to create a variety of different shapes.

It’s an ongoing area of military investment as well, most notably the U.S. Army Research Lab’s Micro-Autonomous Systems Technology or MAST program, which has awarded millions in grants to develop swarms of tiny flying bug robots for surveillance and intelligence gathering missions.