Flying Sensor and Edge Network-Based Advanced Air Mobility Systems: Reliability Analysis and Applications for Urban Monitoring

Abstract

Typical structures of monitoring systems (MSs) that are used in urban complex objects (UCOs) (such as large industrial facilities, power facilities, and others) during the post-accident period are combined with the technologies of flying sensor networks (FSNets) and flying edge networks (FENets) (FSNets and FENets); cloud/fog computing and artificial intelligence are also developed. An FSNets and FENets-based MS, composed of one of the Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) systems classes, which comprise main and virtual crisis centers, fleets of flying sensors, edge nodes, and a ground control station, is presented and discussed. Reliability and survivability models of the MS for the UCOs, considering various operation conditions and options of redundancy, are developed and explored. A tool to support the research on MS reliability, survivability, and the choice of parameters is developed and described. Crucially, this paper enhances the technique for assessing systems using the multi-parametrical deterioration of characteristics as a class of multi-state systems. Problems that may arise when using FSNets/FENet-based AAM systems are discussed. The main research results comprise a structural basis, a set of models, and a tool for calculating the reliability and survivability of FSNets/FENet-based AAM systems, with various options for distributing the processing and control resources between components, their failure rates, and degradation scenarios.