Perdix micro-drone

Perdix
Perdix UAV in testing
Role	Unmanned micro-air vehicle
National origin	United States
Manufacturer	MIT Lincoln Laboratory
Designer	MIT
First flight	September 2014
Status	In testing
Primary user	United States Department of Defense
Produced	2013 - present
Number built	670
Program cost	$20 million

Perdix drones are the main subject of an experimental project conducted by the Special Capabilities Office of the United States Department of Defense which aims to develop autonomous micro-drones to be used for unmanned aerial surveillance.

The idea of intelligent micro-drones which could communicate with each other was pioneered by a group of students studying at the Aeronautics and Astronautics Department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2011. They were subsequently modified for military use in 2013 under the direction of the United States Department of Defense Strategic Capabilities Office.

The drone system was named after the character in Greek mythology of the same name.

Each individual drone is not controlled in itself but instead it shares a collective, distributed "brain," travelling in leaderless "swarms," members of which can adapt to changes in drone numbers and remain co-ordinated with their counterparts. Having multiple micro-drones carrying out surveillance is tactically advantageous to simply having one large drone because it is easier for the micro-drones to dodge air defense systems. Some commentators have said that Perdix drones can be classified as having artificial intelligence.

The first operational test of the militarized Perdix drones was conducted by the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School in September 2014 over Edwards Air Force Base. The drones were placed in the flare canisters of F-16 Fighting Falcon and deployed to operate at a lower altitude. A year later, in September 2015, 90 Perdix missions were flown over Alaska to test maritime surveillance capabilities.

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Wikipedia