Taipei:The Ocean Affairs Council (OAC) announced its funding support for a university team to develop an advanced intelligent system that coordinates various types of drones for enhanced maritime defense and continuous monitoring.

According to Focus Taiwan, the initiative aims to strengthen maritime defense and improve search-and-rescue operations through coordinated drone flights. The project is led by Chueh Chih-che, an associate professor at National Cheng Kung University's Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, who is integrating artificial intelligence, flight dynamics, and swarm control with drones capable of vertical takeoff and landing.

The NCKU team has successfully completed flight simulations with 20 drones, utilizing a control algorithm that prevents collisions through 3D distance measurements and maintains a 100-foot vertical separation. Upcoming phases include hardware-in-the-loop testing and real-world flight tests to validate the system's performance in various sea conditions.

The project employs multi-agent reinforcement learning for autonomous task coordination and route planning, alongside formation control and obstacle-avoidance technologies to ensure safe operations. The drone models involved are the JUMP 20, V-BAT, and Flexrotor, with the team developing flight and control models through comprehensive simulations.

The OAC highlighted the transition of drones from single-aircraft to multi-aircraft coordinated missions, emphasizing their increasing significance in maritime security.