An Architectural Model of a Software Module for Piloting UAV Constellations

Abstract

Technology behind unmanned aircraft vehicles (UAVs) has been rapidly advancing in the recent years. This propelled the adoption rate and widened the range of UAV uses, such as in sport activities, cartography, surveillance, transportation, and military. While using single, individually controlled UAVs is already very common, using UAV constellations is becoming increasingly popular due to advantages in flexibility, scalability and sensing power. However, the use of UAV constellations remains limited to very specific applications due to number of challenges involved. One of the challenges is the lack of generic software system that would allow controlling UAV constellations in different types of flight missions. In order to address this problem, we propose an architectural model of a software module for UAV constellation piloting.