A Survey on UxV Swarms and the Role of Artificial Intelligence as a Technological Enabler

Abstract

In recent years, there has been an ever increasing interest in UxVs and the technology surrounding them. A more recent area of interest within the UxV ecosystem is the development of UxV swarms. In these systems, multiple UxVs synchronize, continuously exchange information, and operate as a cohesive unit. This evolution requires a higher level of autonomy, enhanced coordination, and more efficient communication channels. In this survey, we present relevant research on swarms of UxVs, always considering artificial intelligence (AI) as the key technological enabler for the swarm operations. We view the swarm from three distinct perspectives; these are intelligence-wise, communication-wise, and security-wise. Our main goal is to explore in which ways and to what extent AI has been integrated in these aspects. We aim to identify which of these aspects are the most researched and which need deeper investigation, the types of AI that are mainly used, and which types of vehicles are preferred. We then discuss the results of our work and present current limitations as well as areas of future research in the realm of UxVs, AI, swarm intelligence, communications, and security.