Coordinating multiple aircraft, whether in a precisely synchronized drone show, a distributed infrastructure inspection network, or an autonomously dispatched emergency response fleet, introduces a fundamentally different set of challenges than single-aircraft operations. This session brings together practitioners working at the leading edge of swarm and autonomous fleet deployment to examine what it actually takes to scale UAV operations while maintaining safety, reliability, and meaningful human oversight.
Topics include how GNSS vulnerabilities propagate across large fleets and what architectural choices improve resilience, how distributed hangar networks enable continuous fleet utilization and rapid response across wide geographic areas, and how software systems can expand autonomous decision-making while keeping human operators appropriately in command. For operators, integrators, and engineers thinking seriously about where multi-aircraft operations are heading, this session offers both technical depth and operational perspective on building systems designed to perform when the stakes are high.
The following presentations will be shared in this session:
Lights in the Sky, Signals Under Pressure: Securing GNSS for Drone Swarms
Presented by Gustavo Lopez, Septentrio
Coordinating hundreds or thousands of aircraft in close proximity makes drone shows among the most demanding GNSS use cases in commercial UAV operations, and the vulnerabilities that emerge in that environment are directly relevant to any mission requiring precise, synchronized fleet operations. This presentation examines how GNSS vulnerabilities propagate across distributed UAV systems, from airborne receivers to RTK correction transport layers, and how jamming, spoofing, and environmental factors like multipath and RF congestion complicate detection and response. Attendees will gain a practical framework for assessing GNSS risk in large-scale deployments and leave with insight into layered mitigation strategies — including multi-constellation receivers, signal quality monitoring, and hybrid positioning approaches integrating inertial or vision-based backups — that improve resilience regardless of platform or mission type.
From Return-to-Base to Distributed Drone Tree Networks: Scaling Secure UAV Logistics
Presented by Praveen Manimangalam, Independent Autonomous Systems Architect
Return-to-base operations, limited asset utilization, and airspace complexity constrain what centralized drone deployments can realistically achieve, particularly for infrastructure inspection, energy corridor monitoring, and time-sensitive emergency response. This presentation introduces a distributed “Drone Tree” network architecture that replaces hub-and-spoke deployments with geographically distributed hangar nodes, enabling forward positioning, rapid reassignment, and continuous fleet utilization. Attendees will learn how a structured dispatch prioritization framework balances rapid response for high-priority missions with operational efficiency for routine work, how dynamic rerouting handles TFRs and evolving regulatory constraints, and how a dual-condition payload release protocol reduces operational risk in commercial and public safety deployments. A practical infrastructure and emergency response case study ties the framework together with measurable outcomes in fleet turnaround time and mission reliability.
Beyond Remote Pilots: Human Teaming for Intelligent Drone Swarm Operations
Presented by Jane Cleland-Huang, University of Notre Dame
As drone operations scale from individual aircraft to coordinated fleets, the central challenge is how to expand autonomy while keeping humans meaningfully in command. This presentation introduces a software architecture for Human-On-The-Loop supervision of multi-UAV teams, integrating LLM-based autonomy pipelines that enable UAVs to interpret mission context, analyze sensor data, propose actions, and adapt to evolving conditions, all within defined operational boundaries. The system is designed to keep operators engaged at the right level of abstraction, surfacing uncertainty and enabling timely intervention when needed. Drawing on experience building software to support airspace coordination, fleet monitoring, intelligent planning, and perception-driven autonomy, attendees will gain a grounded understanding of how intelligent swarm operations can be enabled through software systems that expand autonomy while keeping humans firmly in command.
