The team from the Institute of Dynamic Systems and Control (IDSC) designed the flying machines, or as they call it, the Distributed Flight Array. Each machine comes with a 3D printed hexagonal plastic chassis and magnets to the side of its frame.

 Individually, the drones fly in an unsteady manner. Though, when they link up with their counterparts, they fly in an organized way. “The Distributed Flight Array is a flying platform consisting of multiple autonomous single propeller vehicles that are able to drive, dock with their peers and fly in a coordinated fashion,” explains the IDSC. “Once in flight the array hovers for a few minutes, then falls back to the ground, only to repeat the cycle again.”

 A video clip can be watched below of the drones in motion. “If the array’s leveled flight is disturbed, each vehicle individually determines the amount of thrust required to correct for the disturbance based on its position in the array and the array’s motion,” IDSC said.

 “The platform currently flies with either joystick input from an user or input from an external sensor system such as GPS. We are trying to close this gap and make the system completely self-contained and autonomous so that no external input is needed,” Maximilian Kriegleder told Dezeen.

 The machines were not created foe any specific purpose, however Krigleder suggested that they could be utilized for transport systems. “The developed algorithms apply to any real systems that needs to be scalable and distributed,” Kriegleder explained. “One specific example could be a scalable mass transportation system, where one only adds so many modules that a certain payload could be lifted.”

 Voice of Russia. DeZeen Magazine, Youtube Read more: http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_08_01/3D-printed-drones-ready-for-assembly-researchers-2147/