Description of the video:
[Man wearing a mask stands at a podium in a large classroom as music fades in, a IU logo appears in top right corner]
Good morning everyone and welcome to Save the Republic.
[Balloon operators try to control their drone balloons, a referee throws a balloon into a large arena]
I thank you to all of you for being here to have this little autonomous vehicle competition. Let the games begin.
[A woman wearing a mask sits on a couch in front of display cases, lower 3rd reads: Samantha Lawrence, Test lead for tactical technical team bravo at NSWC Crane]
So what we're looking at, swarming, would be defined as multiple robotics entities working together to achieve a goal autonomously.
[Balloon operators wearing masks sit or stand and work with balloons in arena; a smoke animation comes out of a balloon]
Here's a real case scenario; you're just competing you're playing soccer in the air but,
[Another team stands on opposite side of arena releasing a balloon, a smoke animation comes out of balloon]
[2 balloons bump into each other in middle of arena]
what swarming techniques are you gonna use?
[Man sits in front of display cases with a mask on; lower 3rd reads: Jeff Zaleski, Interim Vice Provost for Research]
The idea of the competition is really not a competition, it's more of a collaboration. The idea being at the end of the collaboration we'll
[3 masked balloon operators are seen working remote controllers]
share best practices, all to solve pragmatic problems for the national security operations.
[Masked man sits in front of 2 display cases, lower 3rd reads: Daniel M Lofaro, Research Scientist at US Naval Research Laboratory]
Being able to put our algorithms onto real-world agents, that allows us to test it in a kind of real world environment.
[A drone holding a balloon is intercepted by a different drone.]
[Wide shot of drone operators with drones in background operating.]
[A large red balloon is seen stuck in a pit of the arena]
We're able to run into other adversarial agents where we don't actually know what they're doing; it also teaches the students
[A group of operators work to free multiple drones from each other]
and the other researchers about the limitations.
[Masked man sits in front of 2 display cases, lower 3rd reads: Ankur Mehta, Asst. Professor Electrical and Computer Engineering, UCLA]
We can think about challenges in two ways: there's the engineering challenge and then there's a logistics challenge.
[A unique drone floats in the arena.]
Like everything about this experience
[Transition to Ankur working to repair a drone with a student.]
IU has made it more pleasant, a lot more convenient, and a lot more effective at working at this project.
[Two people work to fix a drone in the arena.]
[A masked man sits in front of 2 display cases, lower 3rd reads: Cameron Nowzari, Asst. Professor, Electrical Engineering, George Mason University]
And the absolute best thing about this project is that I can involve absolutely anyone that wants to come work with me.
[Drone operators are seen, drones move in the background]
[Jeff Zaleski sits in front of 2 display cases]
And so what we'd like to see is that this become a bi-annual event, and I can see already that it's going to grow and grow as we begin
[A masked team of drone operators celebrate in arena, same team is then seen standing in large classroom with a blow-up trophy.]
[Jeff Z sits in front of two display cases]
to move forward, so a really great opportunity for IU and a great opportunity for the research space
[ IU logo fades out, animated transition to black]
[Animated text appears: Save the Republic, April 2021, music fades out, text animates off]
[IU logo appears, INDIANA UNIVERSITY, research.impact.iu.edu, then they animate out]
