A fleet of drones can be controlled by one person with a smartphone

By David Hambling

A fleet of drones makes up MultiFlyer, a system that can be operated by one person and which could be used to survey crops or inspect buildings, or to help identify people during search rescue missions.

The operator manages the fleet rather than individual drones, but can take over a single drone at will, using a tablet computer or even a smartphone. Several operators can share control, and the data gathered by the fleet is collated centrally.

While similar technology controls drones in spectacular lightshows, MultiFlyer can perform real-time …