Unmanned aerial vehicle ad-hoc clustering and collaboration via shared intent and operator discovery

1. A method for establishing an ad-hoc collaboration between unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), comprising:

configuring, by a controller of a first UAV, intent data of the first UAV defining a task-oriented intent of a flight of the first UAV;

configuring a collaboration plan for the first UAV and a second UAV based on a determination of a shared intent between the first UAV and the second UAV;

flying, via the controller of the first UAV, the first UAV based on the collaboration plan;

gathering data, using the first UAV, based on the collaboration plan; and

sharing the gathered data with an operator of the second UAV.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising broadcasting the intent data from the first UAV to the second UAV.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the collaboration plan defines respective tasks to be performed by the first UAV and the second UAV.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising modifying flight plan data of the first UAV based on the collaboration plan.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the modifying the flight plan data comprises modifying at least one selected from the group consisting of:

flight area;

flight altitude;

flight speed; and

sensor resolution.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising generating an alert at the controller of the first UAV when the first UAV deviates from the collaboration plan.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising displaying a message on a display of the controller of the first UAV based on the collaboration being terminated.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the sharing the gathered data comprises one of:

transmitting the gathered data from the first UAV to the second UAV;

emailing the gathered data to an email address defined in the collaboration plan;

posting the gathered data to a social media site defined in the collaboration plan; and

posting the gathered data to a data sharing website site defined in the collaboration plan.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the collaboration plan is configured based on different capabilities of the first UAV and the second UAV including at least one selected from the group consisting of:

video resolution;

battery capacity;

speed;

camera wavelength-sensitivity;

audio sensitivity; and

safety features.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising adding a non-UAV device to the collaboration, wherein the non-UAV device comprises one of a smartphone, tablet computer, and laptop computer.

11. A system, comprising:

an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) comprising an on-board computer processor, an on-board computer memory, an on-board wireless communication system, an on-board power source, an on-board propulsion system, and at least one on-board sensor; and

a controller associated with the UAV and comprising a processor, a control program module, a collaboration program module, and input/output system, and a wireless communication system,

wherein the UAV is configured to:

receive an intent message that is broadcast by another UAV;

analyze the intent message to determine a shared intent between the UAV and the other UAV; and

transmit a message to the controller indicating the determination of the shared intent between the UAV and the other UAV.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the analyzing the intent message comprises comparing at least one selected from the group consisting of:

a task category of the UAV to a task category of the other UAV;

a task topic of the UAV to a task topic of the other UAV;

region coordinates of the UAV to region coordinates of the other UAV; and

capabilities of the UAV to capabilities of the other UAV.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the determining the shared intent comprises determining that one or more threshold criteria are satisfied based on the comparing.

14. The system of claim 11 , wherein the controller associated with the UAV is configured to:

establish a shared intent connection with a controller of the other UAV;

configure a collaboration plan for the UAV and the other UAV based on the shared intent;

execute the collaboration plan; and

share the gathered data with an operator of the other UAV.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the collaboration plan defines respective tasks to be performed by the UAV and the other UAV.

16. The system of claim 14 , wherein the executing the collaboration plan comprises modifying flight plan data of the UAV based on the collaboration plan.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the modifying the flight plan data comprises modifying at least one selected from the group consisting of:

flight area;

flight altitude;

flight speed; and

data gathering resolution.

18. The system of claim 14 , wherein the controller associated with the UAV is configured to generate an alert when the UAV deviates from the collaboration plan.

19. The system of claim 14 , wherein the controller associated with the UAV is configured to display a message based on the collaboration being terminated.

20. A computer program product for establishing an ad-hoc collaboration amongst unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a computing device to cause the computing device to:

receive, at a first controller associated with a first UAV, input of intent data defining a task category and a task topic for a first UAV;

transmit the intent data to the first UAV from the first controller;

receive a message from a second controller of a second UAV to establish a connection based on a determination of a shared intent between the first UAV and the second UAV;

receive, at the first controller, input for configuring a collaboration plan for the first UAV and the second UAV, wherein the collaboration plan defines respective tasks to be performed by the first UAV and the second UAV; and

modify flight plan data of the first UAV based on the collaboration plan.