Connectivity maintenance based on multiple relay UAVs selection scheme in cooperative surveillance

Abstract

For the purpose of remote command and situation awareness, multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) cooperative surveillance with a ground station via multihop communications is presented in this paper. Considering limited communication capacities, a reliable UAV-to-UAV communication relay chain is dynamically established for connectivity maintenance and real-time surveillance information transmission. Firstly, a multiple UAVs cooperative surveillance framework is constructed with history detection information and surveillance payoff estimation. Secondly, four attributes are proposed to characterize differences among UAV alternatives in communication network containing a ground station, and a novel multiple relay UAVs selection scheme based on fuzzy optimum selection is developed to achieve tradeoff between surveillance mission and connectivity maintenance. Furthermore, satisfied with collision avoidance, limited communication and UAV kinematic constraints, the optimal UAV motion plan is obtained by decentralized receding horizon control, which is solved by particle swarm optimization with elite mechanism. Simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods in multi UAVs cooperative surveillance.