In the current era of intelligent technologies,comprehensive and precise regional coverage path planning is critical for tasks such as environmental monitoring,emergency rescue,and agricultural plant protection.Owing ...In the current era of intelligent technologies,comprehensive and precise regional coverage path planning is critical for tasks such as environmental monitoring,emergency rescue,and agricultural plant protection.Owing to their exceptional flexibility and rapid deployment capabilities,unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs)have emerged as the ideal platforms for accomplishing these tasks.This study proposes a swarm A^(*)-guided Deep Q-Network(SADQN)algorithm to address the coverage path planning(CPP)problem for UAV swarms in complex environments.Firstly,to overcome the dependency of traditional modeling methods on regular terrain environments,this study proposes an improved cellular decomposition method for map discretization.Simultaneously,a distributed UAV swarm system architecture is adopted,which,through the integration of multi-scale maps,addresses the issues of redundant operations and flight conflicts inmulti-UAV cooperative coverage.Secondly,the heuristic mechanism of the A^(*)algorithmis combinedwith full-coverage path planning,and this approach is incorporated at the initial stage ofDeep Q-Network(DQN)algorithm training to provide effective guidance in action selection,thereby accelerating convergence.Additionally,a prioritized experience replay mechanism is introduced to further enhance the coverage performance of the algorithm.To evaluate the efficacy of the proposed algorithm,simulation experiments were conducted in several irregular environments and compared with several popular algorithms.Simulation results show that the SADQNalgorithmoutperforms othermethods,achieving performance comparable to that of the baseline prior algorithm,with an average coverage efficiency exceeding 2.6 and fewer turning maneuvers.In addition,the algorithm demonstrates excellent generalization ability,enabling it to adapt to different environments.展开更多
Complex multi-area collaborative coverage path planning in dynamic environments poses a significant challenge for multi-fixed-wing UAVs(multi-UAV).This study establishes a comprehensive framework that incorporates UAV...Complex multi-area collaborative coverage path planning in dynamic environments poses a significant challenge for multi-fixed-wing UAVs(multi-UAV).This study establishes a comprehensive framework that incorporates UAV capabilities,terrain,complex areas,and mission dynamics.A novel dynamic collaborative path planning algorithm is introduced,designed to ensure complete coverage of designated areas.This algorithm meticulously optimizes the operation,entry,and transition paths for each UAV,while also establishing evaluation metrics to refine coverage sequences for each area.Additionally,a three-dimensional path is computed utilizing an altitude descent method,effectively integrating twodimensional coverage paths with altitude constraints.The efficacy of the proposed approach is validated through digital simulations and mixed-reality semi-physical experiments across a variety of dynamic scenarios,including both single-area and multi-area coverage by multi-UAV.Results show that the coverage paths generated by this method significantly reduce both computation time and path length,providing a reliable solution for dynamic multi-UAV mission planning in semi-physical environments.展开更多
The ability of mobile robots to plan and execute a path is foundational to various path-planning challenges,particularly Coverage Path Planning.While this task has been typically tackled with classical algorithms,thes...The ability of mobile robots to plan and execute a path is foundational to various path-planning challenges,particularly Coverage Path Planning.While this task has been typically tackled with classical algorithms,these often struggle with flexibility and adaptability in unknown environments.On the other hand,recent advances in Reinforcement Learning offer promising approaches,yet a significant gap in the literature remains when it comes to generalization over a large number of parameters.This paper presents a unified,generalized framework for coverage path planning that leverages value-based deep reinforcement learning techniques.The novelty of the framework comes from the design of an observation space that accommodates different map sizes,an action masking scheme that guarantees safety and robustness while also serving as a learning-fromdemonstration technique during training,and a unique reward function that yields value functions that are size-invariant.These are coupled with a curriculum learning-based training strategy and parametric environment randomization,enabling the agent to tackle complete or partial coverage path planning with perfect or incomplete knowledge while generalizing to different map sizes,configurations,sensor payloads,and sub-tasks.Our empirical results show that the algorithm can perform zero-shot learning scenarios at a near-optimal level in environments that follow a similar distribution as during training,outperforming a greedy heuristic by sixfold.Furthermore,in out-of-distribution environments,our method surpasses existing state-of-the-art algorithms in most zero-shot and all few-shot scenarios,paving the way for generalizable and adaptable path-planning algorithms.展开更多
Unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs)are widely used in situations with uncertain and risky areas lacking network coverage.In natural disasters,timely delivery of first aid supplies is crucial.Current UAVs face risks such as...Unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs)are widely used in situations with uncertain and risky areas lacking network coverage.In natural disasters,timely delivery of first aid supplies is crucial.Current UAVs face risks such as crashing into birds or unexpected structures.Airdrop systems with parachutes risk dispersing payloads away from target locations.The objective here is to use multiple UAVs to distribute payloads cooperatively to assigned locations.The civil defense department must balance coverage,accurate landing,and flight safety while considering battery power and capability.Deep Q-network(DQN)models are commonly used in multi-UAV path planning to effectively represent the surroundings and action spaces.Earlier strategies focused on advanced DQNs for UAV path planning in different configurations,but rarely addressed non-cooperative scenarios and disaster environments.This paper introduces a new DQN framework to tackle challenges in disaster environments.It considers unforeseen structures and birds that could cause UAV crashes and assumes urgent landing zones and winch-based airdrop systems for precise delivery and return.A new DQN model is developed,which incorporates the battery life,safe flying distance between UAVs,and remaining delivery points to encode surrounding hazards into the state space and Q-networks.Additionally,a unique reward system is created to improve UAV action sequences for better delivery coverage and safe landings.The experimental results demonstrate that multi-UAV first aid delivery in disaster environments can achieve advanced performance.展开更多
Aiming at the problem of low convergence efficiency of traditional multi-UAV path planning algorithms in unknown complex environments,this paper proposes a deep reinforcement learning algorithm incorporating the atten...Aiming at the problem of low convergence efficiency of traditional multi-UAV path planning algorithms in unknown complex environments,this paper proposes a deep reinforcement learning algorithm incorporating the attention mechanism.The method is based on the Soft Actor-Critic(SAC)framework,which introduces a multi-attention mechanism in the Critic network,dynamically learns the dependency relationship between intelligences,and realizes key information screening and conflict avoidance.An environment with multiple random obstacles is designed to simulate complex emergent situations.The results show that the proposed algorithm significantly improves the mission success rate and average reward,significantly extends the survival time and exploration range of the UAVs,and verifies the effectiveness of the attention mechanism in enhancing the efficiency,robustness,and long-term planning capability of multi-UAV collaboration,as compared to the baseline method that does not use attention.展开更多
Unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs),commonly known as drones,have drawn significant consideration thanks to their agility,mobility,and flexibility features.They play a crucial role in modern reconnaissance,inspection,intel...Unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs),commonly known as drones,have drawn significant consideration thanks to their agility,mobility,and flexibility features.They play a crucial role in modern reconnaissance,inspection,intelligence,and surveillance missions.Coverage path planning(CPP)which is one of the crucial aspects that determines an intelligent system’s quality seeks an optimal trajectory to fully cover the region of interest(ROI).However,the flight time of the UAV is limited due to a battery limitation and may not cover the whole region,especially in large region.Therefore,energy consumption is one of the most challenging issues that need to be optimized.In this paper,we propose an energy-efficient coverage path planning algorithm to solve the CPP problem.The objective is to generate a collision-free coverage path that minimizes the overall energy consumption and guarantees covering the whole region.To do so,the flight path is optimized and the number of turns is reduced to minimize the energy consumption.The proposed approach first decomposes the ROI into a set of cells depending on a UAV camera footprint.Then,the coverage path planning problem is formulated,where the exact solution is determined using the CPLEX solver.For small-scale problems,the CPLEX shows a better solution in a reasonable time.However,the CPLEX solver fails to generate the solution within a reasonable time for large-scale problems.Thus,to solve the model for large-scale problems,simulated annealing forCPP is developed.The results show that heuristic approaches yield a better solution for large-scale problems within amuch shorter execution time than the CPLEX solver.Finally,we compare the simulated annealing against the greedy algorithm.The results show that simulated annealing outperforms the greedy algorithm in generating better solution quality.展开更多
Collaborative coverage path planning(CCPP) refers to obtaining the shortest paths passing over all places except obstacles in a certain area or space. A multi-unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV) collaborative CCPP algorithm ...Collaborative coverage path planning(CCPP) refers to obtaining the shortest paths passing over all places except obstacles in a certain area or space. A multi-unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV) collaborative CCPP algorithm is proposed for the urban rescue search or military search in outdoor environment.Due to flexible control of small UAVs, it can be considered that all UAVs fly at the same altitude, that is, they perform search tasks on a two-dimensional plane. Based on the agents’ motion characteristics and environmental information, a mathematical model of CCPP problem is established. The minimum time for UAVs to complete the CCPP is the objective function, and complete coverage constraint, no-fly constraint, collision avoidance constraint, and communication constraint are considered. Four motion strategies and two communication strategies are designed. Then a distributed CCPP algorithm is designed based on hybrid strategies. Simulation results compared with patternbased genetic algorithm(PBGA) and random search method show that the proposed method has stronger real-time performance and better scalability and can complete the complete CCPP task more efficiently and stably.展开更多
It is difficult to solve complete coverage path planning directly in the obstructed area. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a method of complete coverage path planning with improved area division. Firstly, the bous...It is difficult to solve complete coverage path planning directly in the obstructed area. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a method of complete coverage path planning with improved area division. Firstly, the boustrophedon cell decomposition method is used to partition the map into sub-regions. The complete coverage paths within each sub-region are obtained by the Boustrophedon back-and-forth motions, and the order of traversal of the sub-regions is then described as a generalised traveling salesman problem with pickup and delivery based on the relative positions of the vertices of each sub-region. An adaptive large neighbourhood algorithm is proposed to quickly obtain solution results in traversal order. The effectiveness of the improved algorithm on traversal cost reduction is verified in this paper through multiple sets of experiments. .展开更多
With the advancement of technology,the collaboration of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles(multi-UAVs)is a general trend,both in military and civilian domains.Path planning is a crucial step for multi-UAV mission execu...With the advancement of technology,the collaboration of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles(multi-UAVs)is a general trend,both in military and civilian domains.Path planning is a crucial step for multi-UAV mission execution,it is a nonlinear problem with constraints.Traditional optimization algorithms have difficulty in finding the optimal solution that minimizes the cost function under various constraints.At the same time,robustness should be taken into account to ensure the reliable and safe operation of the UAVs.In this paper,a self-adaptive sparrow search algorithm(SSA),denoted as DRSSA,is presented.During optimization,a dynamic population strategy is used to allocate the searching effort between exploration and exploitation;a t-distribution perturbation coefficient is proposed to adaptively adjust the exploration range;a random learning strategy is used to help the algorithm from falling into the vicinity of the origin and local optimums.The convergence of DRSSA is tested by 29 test functions from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers(IEEE)Congress on Evolutionary Computation(CEC)2017 benchmark suite.Furthermore,a stochastic optimization strategy is introduced to enhance safety in the path by accounting for potential perturbations.Two sets of simulation experiments on multi-UAV path planning in three-dimensional environments demonstrate that the algorithm exhibits strong optimization capabilities and robustness in dealing with uncertain situations.展开更多
Abstract： There is a high demand for unmanned aerial vehicle （UAV） flight stability when using vi- sion as a detection method for navigation control. To meet such demand, a new path planning meth- od for controllin...Abstract： There is a high demand for unmanned aerial vehicle （UAV） flight stability when using vi- sion as a detection method for navigation control. To meet such demand, a new path planning meth- od for controlling multi-UAVs is studied to reach multi-waypoints simultaneously under the view of visual navigation technology. A model based on the stable-shortest pythagorean-hodograph （PH） curve is established, which could not only satisfy the demands of visual navigation and control law, but also be easy to compute. Based on the model, a planning algorithm to guide multi-UAVs to reach multi-waypoints at the same time without collisions is developed. The simulation results show that the paths have shorter distance and smaller curvature than traditional methods, which could help to avoid collisions.展开更多
Using the traditional swarm intelligence algorithm to solve the cooperative path planning problem for multi-UAVs is easy to incur the problems of local optimization and a slow convergence rate.A cooperative path plann...Using the traditional swarm intelligence algorithm to solve the cooperative path planning problem for multi-UAVs is easy to incur the problems of local optimization and a slow convergence rate.A cooperative path planning method for multi-UAVs based on the improved sheep optimization is proposed to tackle these.Firstly,based on the three-dimensional planning space,a multi-UAV cooperative cost function model is established according to the path planning requirements,and an initial track set is constructed by combining multiple-population ideas.Then an improved sheep optimization is proposed and used to solve the path planning problem and obtain multiple cooperative paths.The simulation results show that the sheep optimization can meet the requirements of path planning and realize the cooperative path planning of multi-UAVs.Compared with grey wolf optimizer(GWO),improved gray wolf optimizer(IGWO),chaotic gray wolf optimizer(CGWO),differential evolution(DE)algorithm,and particle swam optimization(PSO),the convergence speed and search accuracy of the improved sheep optimization are significantly improved.展开更多
As the problem of surface garbage pollution becomes more serious,it is necessary to improve the efficiency of garbage inspection and picking rather than traditional manual methods.Due to lightness,Unmanned Aerial Vehi...As the problem of surface garbage pollution becomes more serious,it is necessary to improve the efficiency of garbage inspection and picking rather than traditional manual methods.Due to lightness,Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAVs)can traverse the entire water surface in a short time through their flight field of view.In addition,Unmanned Surface Vessels(USVs)can provide battery replacement and pick up garbage.In this paper,we innovatively establish a system framework for the collaboration between UAV and USVs,and develop an automatic water cleaning strategy.First,on the basis of the partition principle,we propose a collaborative coverage path algorithm based on UAV off-site takeoff and landing to achieve global inspection.Second,we design a task scheduling and assignment algorithm for USVs to balance the garbage loads based on the particle swarm optimization algorithm.Finally,based on the swarm intelligence algorithm,we also design an autonomous obstacle avoidance path planning algorithm for USVs to realize autonomous navigation and collaborative cleaning.The system can simultaneously perform inspection and clearance tasks under certain constraints.The simulation results show that the proposed algorithms have higher generality and flexibility while effectively improving computational efficiency and reducing actual cleaning costs compared with other schemes.展开更多
In recent years,sensor technology has been widely used in the defense and control of sensitive areas in cities,or in various scenarios such as early warning of forest fires,monitoring of forest pests and diseases,and ...In recent years,sensor technology has been widely used in the defense and control of sensitive areas in cities,or in various scenarios such as early warning of forest fires,monitoring of forest pests and diseases,and protection of endangered animals.Deploying sensors to collect data and then utilizing unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV)to collect the data stored in the sensors has replaced traditional manual data collection as the dominant method.The current strategies for efficient data collection in above scenarios are still imperfect,and the low quality of the collected data and the excessive energy consumed by UAV flights are still the main problems faced in data collection.With regards this,this paper proposes a multi-UAV mission planning method for self-organized sensor data acquisition by comprehensively utilizing the techniques of self-organized sensor clustering,multi-UAV mission area allocation,and sub-area data acquisition scheme optimization.The improvedα-hop clustering method utilizes the average transmission distance to reduce the size of the collection sensors,and the K-Dimensional method is used to form a multi-UAV cooperative workspace,and then,the genetic algorithm is used to trade-off the speed with the age of information(AoI)of the collected information and the energy consumption to form the multi-UAV data collection operation scheme.The combined optimization scheme in paper improves the performance by 95.56%and 58.21%,respectively,compared to the traditional baseline model.In order to verify the excellent generalization and applicability of the proposed method in real scenarios,the simulation test is conducted by introducing the digital elevation model data of the real terrain,and the results show that the relative error values of the proposed method and the performance test of the actual flight of the UAV are within the error interval of±10%.Then,the advantages and disadvantages of the present method with the existing mainstream schemes are tested,and the results show that the present method has a huge advantage in terms of space and time complexity,and at the same time,the accuracy for data extraction is relatively improved by 10.46%and 12.71%.Finally,by eliminating the clustering process and the subtask assignment process,the AoI performance decreases by 3.46×and 4.45×,and the energy performance decreases by 3.52×and 4.47×.This paper presents a comprehensive and detailed proactive optimization of the existing challenges faced in the field of data acquisition by means of a series of combinatorial optimizations.展开更多
The environment modeling algorithm named rectangular decomposition, which is composed of cellular nodes and interleaving networks, is proposed. The principle of environment modeling is to divide the environment into i...The environment modeling algorithm named rectangular decomposition, which is composed of cellular nodes and interleaving networks, is proposed. The principle of environment modeling is to divide the environment into individual square sub-areas. Each sub-area is orientated by the central point of the sub-areas called a node. The rectangular map based on the square map can enlarge the square area side size to increase the coverage efficiency in the case of there being an adjacent obstacle. Based on this algorithm, a new coverage algorithm, which includes global path planning and local path planning, is introduced. In the global path planning, uncovered subspaces are found by using a special rule. A one-dimensional array P, which is used to obtain the searching priority of node in every direction, is defined as the search rule. The array P includes the condition of coverage towards the adjacent cells, the condition of connectivity and the priorities defined by the user in all eight directions. In the local path planning, every sub-area is covered by using template models according to the shape of the environment. The simulation experiments show that the coverage algorithm is simple, efficient and adapted for complex two- dimensional environments.展开更多
To address real-time path planning requirements for multi-unmanned aerial vehicle(multi-UAV)collaboration in environments,this study proposes an improved multi-agent deep deterministic policy gradient algorithm with p...To address real-time path planning requirements for multi-unmanned aerial vehicle(multi-UAV)collaboration in environments,this study proposes an improved multi-agent deep deterministic policy gradient algorithm with prioritized experience replay(PER-MADDPG).By designing a multi-dimensional state representation incorporating relative positions,velocity vectors,and obstacle distance fields,we construct a composite reward function integrating safe obstacle avoidance,formation maintenance,and energy efficiency for environment perception and multiobjective collaborative optimization.The prioritized experience replay mechanism dynamically adjusts sampling weights based on temporal difference(TD)errors,enhancing learning efficiency for high-value samples.Simulation experiments demonstrate that our method generates real-time collaborative paths in 3D complex obstacle environments,reducing training time by 25.3%and 16.8%compared to traditional MADDPG and multi-agent twin delayed deep deterministic policy gradient(MATD3)algorithms respectively,while achieving smaller path length variances among UAVs.Results validate the effectiveness of prioritized experience replay in multi-agent collaborative decision-making.展开更多
This article uses arc-length parameters for path planning to carry out robotic fibre placement （RFP） over open-contoured structures This allows representing the initial path and offset points using an identical math...This article uses arc-length parameters for path planning to carry out robotic fibre placement （RFP） over open-contoured structures This allows representing the initial path and offset points using an identical mathematical equation and computation by more simple arithmetic. With the help of classical differential geometry, the calculation of fiber-placing paths may be reduced to solution of initial-value problems of first-order ordinary differential equations in the parametric domain （parametrically defined mould surface） or in 3D space （an implicitly defined mould surface）, thereby significantly improving on the existing methods. Compared with the conventional methods, the proposed method, besides its computational simplicity, has a better error control mechanism in computing the initial path and offset points. Numerical experiments are also carried out to demonstrate the feasibility of the new method in composite forming processes and also its potential application in computer numerical control （CNC） machining, surface trim, and other industrial practices.展开更多
Network planning, analysis and design are an iterative process aimed at ensuring that a new network service meets the needs of subscribers and operators. During the initial start-up phase, coverage is the big issue an...Network planning, analysis and design are an iterative process aimed at ensuring that a new network service meets the needs of subscribers and operators. During the initial start-up phase, coverage is the big issue and coverage in telecommunications systems is related to the service area where a bare minimum access in the wireless network is possible. In order to guarantee visibility of at least one satellite above a certain satellite elevation, more satellites are required in the constellation to provide Global network services. Hence, the aim of this paper is to develop wide area network coverage for sparsely distributed earth stations in the world. A hybrid geometrical topology model using spherical coordinate framework was devised to provide wide area network coverage for sparsely distributed earth stations in the world. This topology model ensures Global satellite continuous network coverage for terrestrial networks. A computation of path lengths between any two satellites put in place to provide network services to selected cities in the world was carried out. A consideration of a suitable routing decision mechanism, routing protocols and algorithms were considered in the work while the shortest paths as well as the alternate paths between located nodes were computed. It was observed that a particular satellite with the central angle of 27°can provide services into the diameter of the instantaneous coverage distance of 4081.3 Km which is typical of wide area network coverage. This implies that link-state database routing scheme can be applied, continuous global geographical coverage with minimum span, minimum traffic pattern and latency are guaranteed. Traffic handover rerouting strategies need further research. Also, traffic engineering resources such as channel capacity and bandwidth utilization schemes need to be investigated. Satellite ATM network architecture will benefit and needs further study.展开更多
Multiple UAVs cooperative target search has been widely used in various environments,such as emergency rescue and traffic monitoring.However,uncertain communication network among UAVs exhibits unstable links and rapid...Multiple UAVs cooperative target search has been widely used in various environments,such as emergency rescue and traffic monitoring.However,uncertain communication network among UAVs exhibits unstable links and rapid topological fluctuations due to mission complexity and unpredictable environmental states.This limitation hinders timely information sharing and insightful path decisions for UAVs,resulting in inefficient or even failed collaborative search.Aiming at this issue,this paper proposes a multi-UAV cooperative search strategy by developing a real-time trajectory decision that incorporates autonomous connectivity to reinforce multi-UAV collaboration and achieve search acceleration in uncertain search environments.Specifically,an autonomous connectivity strategy based on node cognitive information and network states is introduced to enable effective message transmission and adapt to the dynamic network environment.Based on the fused information,we formalize the trajectory planning as a multiobjective optimization problem by jointly considering search performance and UAV energy harnessing.A multi-agent deep reinforcement learning based algorithm is proposed to solve it,where the reward-guided real-time path is determined to achieve an energyefficient search.Finally,extensive experimental results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms existing works in terms of average search rate and coverage rate with reduced energy consumption under uncertain search environments.展开更多
In dynamic and uncertain reconnaissance missions,effective task assignment and path planning for multiple unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs)present significant challenges.A stochastic multi-UAV reconnaissance scheduling p...In dynamic and uncertain reconnaissance missions,effective task assignment and path planning for multiple unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs)present significant challenges.A stochastic multi-UAV reconnaissance scheduling problem is formulated as a combinatorial optimization task with nonlinear objectives and coupled constraints.To solve the non-deterministic polynomial(NP)-hard problem efficiently,a novel learning-enhanced pigeon-inspired optimization(L-PIO)algorithm is proposed.The algorithm integrates a Q-learning mechanism to dynamically regulate control parameters,enabling adaptive exploration–exploitation trade-offs across different optimization phases.Additionally,geometric abstraction techniques are employed to approximate complex reconnaissance regions using maximum inscribed rectangles and spiral path models,allowing for precise cost modeling of UAV paths.The formal objective function is developed to minimize global flight distance and completion time while maximizing reconnaissance priority and task coverage.A series of simulation experiments are conducted under three scenarios:static task allocation,dynamic task emergence,and UAV failure recovery.Comparative analysis with several updated algorithms demonstrates that L-PIO exhibits superior robustness,adaptability,and computational efficiency.The results verify the algorithm's effectiveness in addressing dynamic reconnaissance task planning in real-time multi-UAV applications.展开更多
文摘In the current era of intelligent technologies,comprehensive and precise regional coverage path planning is critical for tasks such as environmental monitoring,emergency rescue,and agricultural plant protection.Owing to their exceptional flexibility and rapid deployment capabilities,unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs)have emerged as the ideal platforms for accomplishing these tasks.This study proposes a swarm A^(*)-guided Deep Q-Network(SADQN)algorithm to address the coverage path planning(CPP)problem for UAV swarms in complex environments.Firstly,to overcome the dependency of traditional modeling methods on regular terrain environments,this study proposes an improved cellular decomposition method for map discretization.Simultaneously,a distributed UAV swarm system architecture is adopted,which,through the integration of multi-scale maps,addresses the issues of redundant operations and flight conflicts inmulti-UAV cooperative coverage.Secondly,the heuristic mechanism of the A^(*)algorithmis combinedwith full-coverage path planning,and this approach is incorporated at the initial stage ofDeep Q-Network(DQN)algorithm training to provide effective guidance in action selection,thereby accelerating convergence.Additionally,a prioritized experience replay mechanism is introduced to further enhance the coverage performance of the algorithm.To evaluate the efficacy of the proposed algorithm,simulation experiments were conducted in several irregular environments and compared with several popular algorithms.Simulation results show that the SADQNalgorithmoutperforms othermethods,achieving performance comparable to that of the baseline prior algorithm,with an average coverage efficiency exceeding 2.6 and fewer turning maneuvers.In addition,the algorithm demonstrates excellent generalization ability,enabling it to adapt to different environments.
基金National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.52472417)to provide fund for conducting experiments.
文摘Complex multi-area collaborative coverage path planning in dynamic environments poses a significant challenge for multi-fixed-wing UAVs(multi-UAV).This study establishes a comprehensive framework that incorporates UAV capabilities,terrain,complex areas,and mission dynamics.A novel dynamic collaborative path planning algorithm is introduced,designed to ensure complete coverage of designated areas.This algorithm meticulously optimizes the operation,entry,and transition paths for each UAV,while also establishing evaluation metrics to refine coverage sequences for each area.Additionally,a three-dimensional path is computed utilizing an altitude descent method,effectively integrating twodimensional coverage paths with altitude constraints.The efficacy of the proposed approach is validated through digital simulations and mixed-reality semi-physical experiments across a variety of dynamic scenarios,including both single-area and multi-area coverage by multi-UAV.Results show that the coverage paths generated by this method significantly reduce both computation time and path length,providing a reliable solution for dynamic multi-UAV mission planning in semi-physical environments.
基金supported by project RELIABLE(PTDC/EEI-AUT/3522/2020)R&D Unit SYSTEC-Base(UIDB001472020)+1 种基金Programmatic(UIDP001472020)funds-and Associate Laboratory Advanced Production and Intelligent Systems ARISE-LAP01122020funded by national funds through the FCT/MCTES(PIDDAC).
文摘The ability of mobile robots to plan and execute a path is foundational to various path-planning challenges,particularly Coverage Path Planning.While this task has been typically tackled with classical algorithms,these often struggle with flexibility and adaptability in unknown environments.On the other hand,recent advances in Reinforcement Learning offer promising approaches,yet a significant gap in the literature remains when it comes to generalization over a large number of parameters.This paper presents a unified,generalized framework for coverage path planning that leverages value-based deep reinforcement learning techniques.The novelty of the framework comes from the design of an observation space that accommodates different map sizes,an action masking scheme that guarantees safety and robustness while also serving as a learning-fromdemonstration technique during training,and a unique reward function that yields value functions that are size-invariant.These are coupled with a curriculum learning-based training strategy and parametric environment randomization,enabling the agent to tackle complete or partial coverage path planning with perfect or incomplete knowledge while generalizing to different map sizes,configurations,sensor payloads,and sub-tasks.Our empirical results show that the algorithm can perform zero-shot learning scenarios at a near-optimal level in environments that follow a similar distribution as during training,outperforming a greedy heuristic by sixfold.Furthermore,in out-of-distribution environments,our method surpasses existing state-of-the-art algorithms in most zero-shot and all few-shot scenarios,paving the way for generalizable and adaptable path-planning algorithms.
基金supported by the Committee of Science of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan under Grant No.249015/0224.
文摘Unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs)are widely used in situations with uncertain and risky areas lacking network coverage.In natural disasters,timely delivery of first aid supplies is crucial.Current UAVs face risks such as crashing into birds or unexpected structures.Airdrop systems with parachutes risk dispersing payloads away from target locations.The objective here is to use multiple UAVs to distribute payloads cooperatively to assigned locations.The civil defense department must balance coverage,accurate landing,and flight safety while considering battery power and capability.Deep Q-network(DQN)models are commonly used in multi-UAV path planning to effectively represent the surroundings and action spaces.Earlier strategies focused on advanced DQNs for UAV path planning in different configurations,but rarely addressed non-cooperative scenarios and disaster environments.This paper introduces a new DQN framework to tackle challenges in disaster environments.It considers unforeseen structures and birds that could cause UAV crashes and assumes urgent landing zones and winch-based airdrop systems for precise delivery and return.A new DQN model is developed,which incorporates the battery life,safe flying distance between UAVs,and remaining delivery points to encode surrounding hazards into the state space and Q-networks.Additionally,a unique reward system is created to improve UAV action sequences for better delivery coverage and safe landings.The experimental results demonstrate that multi-UAV first aid delivery in disaster environments can achieve advanced performance.
文摘Aiming at the problem of low convergence efficiency of traditional multi-UAV path planning algorithms in unknown complex environments,this paper proposes a deep reinforcement learning algorithm incorporating the attention mechanism.The method is based on the Soft Actor-Critic(SAC)framework,which introduces a multi-attention mechanism in the Critic network,dynamically learns the dependency relationship between intelligences,and realizes key information screening and conflict avoidance.An environment with multiple random obstacles is designed to simulate complex emergent situations.The results show that the proposed algorithm significantly improves the mission success rate and average reward,significantly extends the survival time and exploration range of the UAVs,and verifies the effectiveness of the attention mechanism in enhancing the efficiency,robustness,and long-term planning capability of multi-UAV collaboration,as compared to the baseline method that does not use attention.
基金funded by Project Number INML2104 under the Interdisci-Plinary Center of Smart Mobility and Logistics,KFUPM.
文摘Unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs),commonly known as drones,have drawn significant consideration thanks to their agility,mobility,and flexibility features.They play a crucial role in modern reconnaissance,inspection,intelligence,and surveillance missions.Coverage path planning(CPP)which is one of the crucial aspects that determines an intelligent system’s quality seeks an optimal trajectory to fully cover the region of interest(ROI).However,the flight time of the UAV is limited due to a battery limitation and may not cover the whole region,especially in large region.Therefore,energy consumption is one of the most challenging issues that need to be optimized.In this paper,we propose an energy-efficient coverage path planning algorithm to solve the CPP problem.The objective is to generate a collision-free coverage path that minimizes the overall energy consumption and guarantees covering the whole region.To do so,the flight path is optimized and the number of turns is reduced to minimize the energy consumption.The proposed approach first decomposes the ROI into a set of cells depending on a UAV camera footprint.Then,the coverage path planning problem is formulated,where the exact solution is determined using the CPLEX solver.For small-scale problems,the CPLEX shows a better solution in a reasonable time.However,the CPLEX solver fails to generate the solution within a reasonable time for large-scale problems.Thus,to solve the model for large-scale problems,simulated annealing forCPP is developed.The results show that heuristic approaches yield a better solution for large-scale problems within amuch shorter execution time than the CPLEX solver.Finally,we compare the simulated annealing against the greedy algorithm.The results show that simulated annealing outperforms the greedy algorithm in generating better solution quality.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (61903036, 61822304)Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Major Project (2021SHZDZX0100)。
文摘Collaborative coverage path planning(CCPP) refers to obtaining the shortest paths passing over all places except obstacles in a certain area or space. A multi-unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV) collaborative CCPP algorithm is proposed for the urban rescue search or military search in outdoor environment.Due to flexible control of small UAVs, it can be considered that all UAVs fly at the same altitude, that is, they perform search tasks on a two-dimensional plane. Based on the agents’ motion characteristics and environmental information, a mathematical model of CCPP problem is established. The minimum time for UAVs to complete the CCPP is the objective function, and complete coverage constraint, no-fly constraint, collision avoidance constraint, and communication constraint are considered. Four motion strategies and two communication strategies are designed. Then a distributed CCPP algorithm is designed based on hybrid strategies. Simulation results compared with patternbased genetic algorithm(PBGA) and random search method show that the proposed method has stronger real-time performance and better scalability and can complete the complete CCPP task more efficiently and stably.
文摘It is difficult to solve complete coverage path planning directly in the obstructed area. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a method of complete coverage path planning with improved area division. Firstly, the boustrophedon cell decomposition method is used to partition the map into sub-regions. The complete coverage paths within each sub-region are obtained by the Boustrophedon back-and-forth motions, and the order of traversal of the sub-regions is then described as a generalised traveling salesman problem with pickup and delivery based on the relative positions of the vertices of each sub-region. An adaptive large neighbourhood algorithm is proposed to quickly obtain solution results in traversal order. The effectiveness of the improved algorithm on traversal cost reduction is verified in this paper through multiple sets of experiments. .
基金Foundation items:National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.62303108)Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities,China(No.CUSF-DH-T-2023065)。
文摘With the advancement of technology,the collaboration of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles(multi-UAVs)is a general trend,both in military and civilian domains.Path planning is a crucial step for multi-UAV mission execution,it is a nonlinear problem with constraints.Traditional optimization algorithms have difficulty in finding the optimal solution that minimizes the cost function under various constraints.At the same time,robustness should be taken into account to ensure the reliable and safe operation of the UAVs.In this paper,a self-adaptive sparrow search algorithm(SSA),denoted as DRSSA,is presented.During optimization,a dynamic population strategy is used to allocate the searching effort between exploration and exploitation;a t-distribution perturbation coefficient is proposed to adaptively adjust the exploration range;a random learning strategy is used to help the algorithm from falling into the vicinity of the origin and local optimums.The convergence of DRSSA is tested by 29 test functions from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers(IEEE)Congress on Evolutionary Computation(CEC)2017 benchmark suite.Furthermore,a stochastic optimization strategy is introduced to enhance safety in the path by accounting for potential perturbations.Two sets of simulation experiments on multi-UAV path planning in three-dimensional environments demonstrate that the algorithm exhibits strong optimization capabilities and robustness in dealing with uncertain situations.
文摘Abstract： There is a high demand for unmanned aerial vehicle （UAV） flight stability when using vi- sion as a detection method for navigation control. To meet such demand, a new path planning meth- od for controlling multi-UAVs is studied to reach multi-waypoints simultaneously under the view of visual navigation technology. A model based on the stable-shortest pythagorean-hodograph （PH） curve is established, which could not only satisfy the demands of visual navigation and control law, but also be easy to compute. Based on the model, a planning algorithm to guide multi-UAVs to reach multi-waypoints at the same time without collisions is developed. The simulation results show that the paths have shorter distance and smaller curvature than traditional methods, which could help to avoid collisions.
基金supported in part by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(No.NZ18008)。
文摘Using the traditional swarm intelligence algorithm to solve the cooperative path planning problem for multi-UAVs is easy to incur the problems of local optimization and a slow convergence rate.A cooperative path planning method for multi-UAVs based on the improved sheep optimization is proposed to tackle these.Firstly,based on the three-dimensional planning space,a multi-UAV cooperative cost function model is established according to the path planning requirements,and an initial track set is constructed by combining multiple-population ideas.Then an improved sheep optimization is proposed and used to solve the path planning problem and obtain multiple cooperative paths.The simulation results show that the sheep optimization can meet the requirements of path planning and realize the cooperative path planning of multi-UAVs.Compared with grey wolf optimizer(GWO),improved gray wolf optimizer(IGWO),chaotic gray wolf optimizer(CGWO),differential evolution(DE)algorithm,and particle swam optimization(PSO),the convergence speed and search accuracy of the improved sheep optimization are significantly improved.
基金supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grants 62071189,62201220 and 62171189by the Key Research and Development Program of Hubei Province under Grant 2021BAA026 and 2020BAB120。
文摘As the problem of surface garbage pollution becomes more serious,it is necessary to improve the efficiency of garbage inspection and picking rather than traditional manual methods.Due to lightness,Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAVs)can traverse the entire water surface in a short time through their flight field of view.In addition,Unmanned Surface Vessels(USVs)can provide battery replacement and pick up garbage.In this paper,we innovatively establish a system framework for the collaboration between UAV and USVs,and develop an automatic water cleaning strategy.First,on the basis of the partition principle,we propose a collaborative coverage path algorithm based on UAV off-site takeoff and landing to achieve global inspection.Second,we design a task scheduling and assignment algorithm for USVs to balance the garbage loads based on the particle swarm optimization algorithm.Finally,based on the swarm intelligence algorithm,we also design an autonomous obstacle avoidance path planning algorithm for USVs to realize autonomous navigation and collaborative cleaning.The system can simultaneously perform inspection and clearance tasks under certain constraints.The simulation results show that the proposed algorithms have higher generality and flexibility while effectively improving computational efficiency and reducing actual cleaning costs compared with other schemes.
基金National Key R&D Program of China(2022YFF1302700)Xiong’an New Area Science and Technology Innovation Special Project of Ministry of Science and Technology of China(2023XAGG0065)+2 种基金Ant Group through CCF-Ant Research Fund(CCF-AFSG RF20220214)Outstanding Youth Team Project of Central Universities(QNTD202308)Beijing Forestry University National Training Program of Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Undergraduates(202310022097).
文摘In recent years,sensor technology has been widely used in the defense and control of sensitive areas in cities,or in various scenarios such as early warning of forest fires,monitoring of forest pests and diseases,and protection of endangered animals.Deploying sensors to collect data and then utilizing unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV)to collect the data stored in the sensors has replaced traditional manual data collection as the dominant method.The current strategies for efficient data collection in above scenarios are still imperfect,and the low quality of the collected data and the excessive energy consumed by UAV flights are still the main problems faced in data collection.With regards this,this paper proposes a multi-UAV mission planning method for self-organized sensor data acquisition by comprehensively utilizing the techniques of self-organized sensor clustering,multi-UAV mission area allocation,and sub-area data acquisition scheme optimization.The improvedα-hop clustering method utilizes the average transmission distance to reduce the size of the collection sensors,and the K-Dimensional method is used to form a multi-UAV cooperative workspace,and then,the genetic algorithm is used to trade-off the speed with the age of information(AoI)of the collected information and the energy consumption to form the multi-UAV data collection operation scheme.The combined optimization scheme in paper improves the performance by 95.56%and 58.21%,respectively,compared to the traditional baseline model.In order to verify the excellent generalization and applicability of the proposed method in real scenarios,the simulation test is conducted by introducing the digital elevation model data of the real terrain,and the results show that the relative error values of the proposed method and the performance test of the actual flight of the UAV are within the error interval of±10%.Then,the advantages and disadvantages of the present method with the existing mainstream schemes are tested,and the results show that the present method has a huge advantage in terms of space and time complexity,and at the same time,the accuracy for data extraction is relatively improved by 10.46%and 12.71%.Finally,by eliminating the clustering process and the subtask assignment process,the AoI performance decreases by 3.46×and 4.45×,and the energy performance decreases by 3.52×and 4.47×.This paper presents a comprehensive and detailed proactive optimization of the existing challenges faced in the field of data acquisition by means of a series of combinatorial optimizations.
基金The National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.50475076)the National High Technology Research and Development Pro-gram of China(863Program)(No.2006AA04Z234)
文摘The environment modeling algorithm named rectangular decomposition, which is composed of cellular nodes and interleaving networks, is proposed. The principle of environment modeling is to divide the environment into individual square sub-areas. Each sub-area is orientated by the central point of the sub-areas called a node. The rectangular map based on the square map can enlarge the square area side size to increase the coverage efficiency in the case of there being an adjacent obstacle. Based on this algorithm, a new coverage algorithm, which includes global path planning and local path planning, is introduced. In the global path planning, uncovered subspaces are found by using a special rule. A one-dimensional array P, which is used to obtain the searching priority of node in every direction, is defined as the search rule. The array P includes the condition of coverage towards the adjacent cells, the condition of connectivity and the priorities defined by the user in all eight directions. In the local path planning, every sub-area is covered by using template models according to the shape of the environment. The simulation experiments show that the coverage algorithm is simple, efficient and adapted for complex two- dimensional environments.
基金supported by the open project of National Key Laboratory of Air-Based Information Perception and Fusion(No.202462)。
文摘To address real-time path planning requirements for multi-unmanned aerial vehicle(multi-UAV)collaboration in environments,this study proposes an improved multi-agent deep deterministic policy gradient algorithm with prioritized experience replay(PER-MADDPG).By designing a multi-dimensional state representation incorporating relative positions,velocity vectors,and obstacle distance fields,we construct a composite reward function integrating safe obstacle avoidance,formation maintenance,and energy efficiency for environment perception and multiobjective collaborative optimization.The prioritized experience replay mechanism dynamically adjusts sampling weights based on temporal difference(TD)errors,enhancing learning efficiency for high-value samples.Simulation experiments demonstrate that our method generates real-time collaborative paths in 3D complex obstacle environments,reducing training time by 25.3%and 16.8%compared to traditional MADDPG and multi-agent twin delayed deep deterministic policy gradient(MATD3)algorithms respectively,while achieving smaller path length variances among UAVs.Results validate the effectiveness of prioritized experience replay in multi-agent collaborative decision-making.
基金Foundation items： National Natural Science Foundation of China （60673026） Hi-tech Research and Development Program of China （2002AA334130）
文摘This article uses arc-length parameters for path planning to carry out robotic fibre placement （RFP） over open-contoured structures This allows representing the initial path and offset points using an identical mathematical equation and computation by more simple arithmetic. With the help of classical differential geometry, the calculation of fiber-placing paths may be reduced to solution of initial-value problems of first-order ordinary differential equations in the parametric domain （parametrically defined mould surface） or in 3D space （an implicitly defined mould surface）, thereby significantly improving on the existing methods. Compared with the conventional methods, the proposed method, besides its computational simplicity, has a better error control mechanism in computing the initial path and offset points. Numerical experiments are also carried out to demonstrate the feasibility of the new method in composite forming processes and also its potential application in computer numerical control （CNC） machining, surface trim, and other industrial practices.
文摘Network planning, analysis and design are an iterative process aimed at ensuring that a new network service meets the needs of subscribers and operators. During the initial start-up phase, coverage is the big issue and coverage in telecommunications systems is related to the service area where a bare minimum access in the wireless network is possible. In order to guarantee visibility of at least one satellite above a certain satellite elevation, more satellites are required in the constellation to provide Global network services. Hence, the aim of this paper is to develop wide area network coverage for sparsely distributed earth stations in the world. A hybrid geometrical topology model using spherical coordinate framework was devised to provide wide area network coverage for sparsely distributed earth stations in the world. This topology model ensures Global satellite continuous network coverage for terrestrial networks. A computation of path lengths between any two satellites put in place to provide network services to selected cities in the world was carried out. A consideration of a suitable routing decision mechanism, routing protocols and algorithms were considered in the work while the shortest paths as well as the alternate paths between located nodes were computed. It was observed that a particular satellite with the central angle of 27°can provide services into the diameter of the instantaneous coverage distance of 4081.3 Km which is typical of wide area network coverage. This implies that link-state database routing scheme can be applied, continuous global geographical coverage with minimum span, minimum traffic pattern and latency are guaranteed. Traffic handover rerouting strategies need further research. Also, traffic engineering resources such as channel capacity and bandwidth utilization schemes need to be investigated. Satellite ATM network architecture will benefit and needs further study.
基金supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.62202449 and No.62472410)National Key Research and Development Program of China(2021YFB2900102)。
文摘Multiple UAVs cooperative target search has been widely used in various environments,such as emergency rescue and traffic monitoring.However,uncertain communication network among UAVs exhibits unstable links and rapid topological fluctuations due to mission complexity and unpredictable environmental states.This limitation hinders timely information sharing and insightful path decisions for UAVs,resulting in inefficient or even failed collaborative search.Aiming at this issue,this paper proposes a multi-UAV cooperative search strategy by developing a real-time trajectory decision that incorporates autonomous connectivity to reinforce multi-UAV collaboration and achieve search acceleration in uncertain search environments.Specifically,an autonomous connectivity strategy based on node cognitive information and network states is introduced to enable effective message transmission and adapt to the dynamic network environment.Based on the fused information,we formalize the trajectory planning as a multiobjective optimization problem by jointly considering search performance and UAV energy harnessing.A multi-agent deep reinforcement learning based algorithm is proposed to solve it,where the reward-guided real-time path is determined to achieve an energyefficient search.Finally,extensive experimental results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms existing works in terms of average search rate and coverage rate with reduced energy consumption under uncertain search environments.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.T2121003,U24B20156)Open Fund of the National Key Laboratory of Helicopter Aeromechanics(No.2024-ZSJ-LB-02-06)。
文摘In dynamic and uncertain reconnaissance missions,effective task assignment and path planning for multiple unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs)present significant challenges.A stochastic multi-UAV reconnaissance scheduling problem is formulated as a combinatorial optimization task with nonlinear objectives and coupled constraints.To solve the non-deterministic polynomial(NP)-hard problem efficiently,a novel learning-enhanced pigeon-inspired optimization(L-PIO)algorithm is proposed.The algorithm integrates a Q-learning mechanism to dynamically regulate control parameters,enabling adaptive exploration–exploitation trade-offs across different optimization phases.Additionally,geometric abstraction techniques are employed to approximate complex reconnaissance regions using maximum inscribed rectangles and spiral path models,allowing for precise cost modeling of UAV paths.The formal objective function is developed to minimize global flight distance and completion time while maximizing reconnaissance priority and task coverage.A series of simulation experiments are conducted under three scenarios:static task allocation,dynamic task emergence,and UAV failure recovery.Comparative analysis with several updated algorithms demonstrates that L-PIO exhibits superior robustness,adaptability,and computational efficiency.The results verify the algorithm's effectiveness in addressing dynamic reconnaissance task planning in real-time multi-UAV applications.
