Drone swarm for safe and coordinated night spectacles for a large public

Situation & problem

Our client Puy-du-Fou, one of Europe’s largest theme parks located in France, specializes in historical and thematic live performance shows. One of these shows is a nocturnal show. For this show, the client wanted to have a swarm of 50 autonomous drones carrying lit attributes of different sizes and shapes that perform a coordinated show. The shows were held daily for a public seated in a 7000 person capacity arena. This project was executed in 2013, long before any commercial platform was available and regulation in its infancy. The show evolved over the years to what is called today ‘Les noces de feu’.

Intermodalics’ solution

We partnered with a hardware and lighting specialist. In this consortium we developed all software for the drones, base station and frontend. The drones consisted of custom built drones that can carry the different payloads and that have backup systems on board for safety. We developed among others control algorithms, path planning algorithms, drone and swarm coordination and orchestration algorithms, and safety functions including multi-communication method emergency buttons, health monitoring and autonomous safety motions.

We provided the client also with the graphical 3D environment to plan and monitor the drone swarm show.

We also assisted the client and government representatives with extensive testing and technical support for regulation drafting.

Outcome

A complete system consisting of drones, a base station, planning and monitoring tools such that the client can plan and execute drone shows during day and night in a 7000 person capacity arena.