Watch A Swarm of Drones Do Graffiti
Italian Design firm Carlo Ratti Associati recently did something quite interesting in Toronto. They combined the first ever crowdsourced mural, with a swarm of drones. This is also the first time a swarm of drones has been used to create a collaborative piece of art on a vertical surface.
Called the UFO-Urban Flying Opera, it started with the submission of 1200 small illustrations from people via their app, which was reduced to 100 final drawings to be combined to create the final mural. The final design was then loaded into a central control computer, with painting instructions relayed to a set of four drones equipped with Montana paint cans. The drones worked for 12 hours to get the whole thing completed. 
Each drone was designed to work as part of a whole, the same way people’s submissions were used as parts to create the final image. Multiple position monitoring systems made sure they didn’t accidentally bump into one another, as most known, there aren’t second chances when you’re spraying a white wall. The massive mural stands 14 meters wide and 12 meters tall, and each colour layer, laid on separately, represents a different aspect of the community the project is trying to highlight.
Check it out in action below!