While a bunch of probes with the AI capabilities that will likely exist in the next few decades would be preferable for such a mission to Saturn's rings, I was wondering how feasible it would be to equip small probes with various relevant sensors and just let them loose among the ring particles.

Ignoring for the moment the need to get them there and brake into Saturn orbit to deploy them (again, not a wild future capability), I envision them being released into the rings to randomly drift around and return as much data as they can. They could be kept unpowered until their arrival, like Huygens was with Titan. We could have different probes with different sensors.

The same probe setup could be used to the little sensor balls into the planet's atmosphere to return data on its upper layers before they burned up, like the Pioneer Venus lander bus did in 1978. Or if there were a way to protect them, they could be dropped deeper into Saturn's clouds.

Similar things could be done for Titan. As for the other moons, I envision a Ranger/Deep Impact scenario, where we get really closeup images and data just before the little explorers go splat. Once again I am assuming here a cheaper/easier concept than actually trying to land them softly. Though imagine some relatively simple monitoring stations at the south pole of Enceladus, as just one example.

And of course this setup can easily apply to other worlds and their moons and rings as well. And this plan involves current and very near future technologies.

It will only be later that the probes will be given new software to link up and become vast Artilects which will take apart the Sol system and turn it into an immense Dyson Shell to better communicate with the ETI Matroishka Brains throughout the Galaxy.

:^)