UAV Cooperative Data Processing Using Distributed Computing Platform

Abstract

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) are being increasingly used in growing number of applications. The use of single vehicle is often not enough due to various limitations, such as available power or sensors installed. Therefore the UAVs are formed into cooperative teams that operate as the distributed processing system realizing the given mission with one or more objectives (tasks) defined. The key factor for such unmanned aerial vehicles teams is the energy efficiency - as each UAV is limited with either battery power or the amount of combustible fuel. In this paper we address this problem and propose the design of UAV-based distributed processing system for which we optimize the OPEX (operational expenditure). We propose the principles of the system, its key elements in a form of mathematical description, and show how it can be used for a collaborative team of unmanned aerial vehicles realizing the object detection mission. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015.