Multiple Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles (multi-UAVs) coordinated trajectory replanning is one of the most complicated global optimum problems in multi-UAVs coordinated control. Based on the construction of the basic mode...Multiple Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles (multi-UAVs) coordinated trajectory replanning is one of the most complicated global optimum problems in multi-UAVs coordinated control. Based on the construction of the basic model of multi-UAVs coordinated trajectory replanning, which includes problem description, threat modeling, constraint conditions, coordinated function and coordination mechanism, a novel Max-Min adaptive Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) approach is presented in detail. In view of the characteristics of multi-UAVs coordinated trajectory replanning in dynamic and uncertain environments, the minimum and maximum pheromone trails in ACO are set to enhance the searching capability, and the point pheromone is adopted to achieve the collision avoidance between UAVs at the trajectory planner layer. Considering the simultaneous arrival and the air-space collision avoidance, an Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) is decided first. Then the trajectory and flight velocity of each UAV are determined. Simulation experiments are performed under the complicated combating environment containing some static threats and popup threats. The results demonstrate the feasibility and the effectiveness of the proposed approach.展开更多
Effective information fusion is very important in hybrid source localization. In this paper, the performance analysis of conventional joint direction of arrival(DOA) and time difference of arrival(TDOA) system is deri...Effective information fusion is very important in hybrid source localization. In this paper, the performance analysis of conventional joint direction of arrival(DOA) and time difference of arrival(TDOA) system is derived and it is shown that this hybrid system may inferior to the single system when the ratio of angular measurements error to distance measurements error exceeds a threshold. To avoid this problem, an effective DOA/TDOA adaptive cascaded(DTAC) technique is presented. The rotation feature of UAVs and spatial filtering technique are applied to gain the signal-to-noise ratio(SNR), which leads to more accurate estimation of time delay by using DOAs. Nevertheless, the time delay estimation precision is still limited by the sampling frequency, which is constrained by the finite load of UAV. To break through the limitation, an enhanced self-delay-compensation(SDC) method is proposed, which aims at detecting the overlooked time delay within the sampling interval by adding a tiny time delay. Finally, the position of the source is estimated by the Chan algorithm. Compared to DOA-only algorithm, TDOA-only algorithm and joint DOA/TDOA(JDT) algorithm, the proposed method shows better localization accuracy regardless of different SNRs and sampling frequencies. Numerical simulations are presented to validate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed algorithm.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
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
In multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAV)systems,achieving efficient navigation is essential for executing complex tasks and enhancing autonomy.Traditional navigation methods depend on predefined control strategies an...In multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAV)systems,achieving efficient navigation is essential for executing complex tasks and enhancing autonomy.Traditional navigation methods depend on predefined control strategies and trajectory planning and often perform poorly in complex environments.To improve the UAV-environment interaction efficiency,this study proposes a multi-UAV integrated navigation algorithm based on Deep Reinforcement Learning(DRL).This algorithm integrates the Inertial Navigation System(INS),Global Navigation Satellite System(GNSS),and Visual Navigation System(VNS)for comprehensive information fusion.Specifically,an improved multi-UAV integrated navigation algorithm called Information Fusion with MultiAgent Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient(IF-MADDPG)was developed.This algorithm enables UAVs to learn collaboratively and optimize their flight trajectories in real time.Through simulations and experiments,test scenarios in GNSS-denied environments were constructed to evaluate the effectiveness of the algorithm.The experimental results demonstrate that the IF-MADDPG algorithm significantly enhances the collaborative navigation capabilities of multiple UAVs in formation maintenance and GNSS-denied environments.Additionally,it has advantages in terms of mission completion time.This study provides a novel approach for efficient collaboration in multi-UAV systems,which significantly improves the robustness and adaptability of navigation systems.展开更多
This study introduces a novel algorithm known as the dung beetle optimization algorithm based on bounded reflection optimization andmulti-strategy fusion(BFDBO),which is designed to tackle the complexities associated ...This study introduces a novel algorithm known as the dung beetle optimization algorithm based on bounded reflection optimization andmulti-strategy fusion(BFDBO),which is designed to tackle the complexities associated with multi-UAV collaborative trajectory planning in intricate battlefield environments.Initially,a collaborative planning cost function for the multi-UAV system is formulated,thereby converting the trajectory planning challenge into an optimization problem.Building on the foundational dung beetle optimization(DBO)algorithm,BFDBO incorporates three significant innovations:a boundary reflection mechanism,an adaptive mixed exploration strategy,and a dynamic multi-scale mutation strategy.These enhancements are intended to optimize the equilibrium between local exploration and global exploitation,facilitating the discovery of globally optimal trajectories thatminimize the cost function.Numerical simulations utilizing the CEC2022 benchmark function indicate that all three enhancements of BFDBOpositively influence its performance,resulting in accelerated convergence and improved optimization accuracy relative to leading optimization algorithms.In two battlefield scenarios of varying complexities,BFDBO achieved a minimum of a 39% reduction in total trajectory planning costs when compared to DBO and three other highperformance variants,while also demonstrating superior average runtime.This evidence underscores the effectiveness and applicability of BFDBO in practical,real-world contexts.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
This paper proposes a Multi-Agent Attention Proximal Policy Optimization(MA2PPO)algorithm aiming at the problems such as credit assignment,low collaboration efficiency and weak strategy generalization ability existing...This paper proposes a Multi-Agent Attention Proximal Policy Optimization(MA2PPO)algorithm aiming at the problems such as credit assignment,low collaboration efficiency and weak strategy generalization ability existing in the cooperative pursuit tasks of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs).Traditional algorithms often fail to effectively identify critical cooperative relationships in such tasks,leading to low capture efficiency and a significant decline in performance when the scale expands.To tackle these issues,based on the proximal policy optimization(PPO)algorithm,MA2PPO adopts the centralized training with decentralized execution(CTDE)framework and introduces a dynamic decoupling mechanism,that is,sharing the multi-head attention(MHA)mechanism for critics during centralized training to solve the credit assignment problem.This method enables the pursuers to identify highly correlated interactions with their teammates,effectively eliminate irrelevant and weakly relevant interactions,and decompose large-scale cooperation problems into decoupled sub-problems,thereby enhancing the collaborative efficiency and policy stability among multiple agents.Furthermore,a reward function has been devised to facilitate the pursuers to encircle the escapee by combining a formation reward with a distance reward,which incentivizes UAVs to develop sophisticated cooperative pursuit strategies.Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in achieving multi-UAV cooperative pursuit and inducing diverse cooperative pursuit behaviors among UAVs.Moreover,experiments on scalability have demonstrated that the algorithm is suitable for large-scale multi-UAV systems.展开更多
This paper aims to address the problem of multi-UAV cooperative search for multiple targets in a mountainous environment,considering the constraints of UAV dynamics and prior environmental information.Firstly,using th...This paper aims to address the problem of multi-UAV cooperative search for multiple targets in a mountainous environment,considering the constraints of UAV dynamics and prior environmental information.Firstly,using the target probability distribution map,two strategies of information fusion and information diffusion are employed to solve the problem of environmental information inconsistency caused by different UAVs searching different areas,thereby improving the coordination of UAV groups.Secondly,the task region is decomposed into several high-value sub-regions by using data clustering method.Based on this,a hierarchical search strategy is proposed,which allows precise or rough search in different probability areas by adjusting the altitude of the aircraft,thereby improving the search efficiency.Third,the Elite Dung Beetle Optimization Algorithm(EDBOA)is proposed based on bionics by accurately simulating the social behavior of dung beetles to plan paths that satisfy the UAV dynamics constraints and adapt to the mountainous terrain,where the mountain is considered as an obstacle to be avoided.Finally,the objective function for path optimization is formulated by considering factors such as coverage within the task region,smoothness of the search path,and path length.The effectiveness and superiority of the proposed schemes are verified by the simulation.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
Unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs)are emerging as a powerful tool for inspections and repair works in large-scale and unstructured 3D infrastructures,but current approaches take a long time to cover the entire area.Planni...Unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs)are emerging as a powerful tool for inspections and repair works in large-scale and unstructured 3D infrastructures,but current approaches take a long time to cover the entire area.Planning using UAVs for inspections and repair works puts forward a requirement of improving time efficiency in large-scale and cluster environments.This paper presents a hierarchical multi-UAV cooperative framework for infrastructure inspection and reconstruction to balance the workload and reduce the overall task completion time.The proposed framework consists of two stages,the exploration stage and the exploitation stage,resolving the task in a sequential manner.At the exploration stage,the density map is developed to update global and local information for dynamic load-balanced area partition based on reconstructability and relative positions of UAVs,and the Voronoi-based planner is used to enable the UAVs to reach their best region.After obtaining the global map,viewpoints are generated and divided while taking into account the battery capacity of each UAV.Finally,a shortest path planning method is used to minimize the total traveling cost of these viewpoints for obtaining a high-quality reconstruction.Several experiments are conducted in both a simulated and real environment to show the time efficiency,robustness,and effectiveness of the proposed method.Furthermore,the whole system is implemented in real applications.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
This paper proposes a multi-UAV cooperative exploration approach based on task-density space partition.In the research of multi-UAV cooperative exploration,it is a prevalent cooperative scheme to control robots to wor...This paper proposes a multi-UAV cooperative exploration approach based on task-density space partition.In the research of multi-UAV cooperative exploration,it is a prevalent cooperative scheme to control robots to work independently in partitioned spaces.Nonetheless,only considering the position of robots during space partition cannot effectively ensure the overall cooperative efficiency.According to research on task density of current time points and positions of robots during exploration,robots with fewer task points are assigned to work in spaces with more tasks in the rolling horizon optimization planning mode,which can reduce the redundancy of multi-robot cooperative work.Comparative research suggests that the overall exploration efficiency is improved.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
With the rapid development of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle(UAV)technology,one of the emerging fields is to utilize multi-UAV as a team under autonomous control in a complex environment.Among the challenges in fully achievi...With the rapid development of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle(UAV)technology,one of the emerging fields is to utilize multi-UAV as a team under autonomous control in a complex environment.Among the challenges in fully achieving autonomous control,Cooperative task assignment stands out as the key function.In this paper,we analyze the importance and difficulties of multiUAV cooperative task assignment in characterizing scenarios and obtaining high-quality solutions.Furthermore,we present three promising directions for future research:Cooperative task assignment in a dynamic complex environment,in an unmanned-manned aircraft system and in a UAV swarm.Our goal is to provide a brief review of multi-UAV cooperative task assignment for readers to further explore.展开更多
UAV cooperative control has been applied in many complex UAV communication networks. It remains challenging to develop UAV cooperative coverage and UAV energy-efficient communication technology. In this paper, we inve...UAV cooperative control has been applied in many complex UAV communication networks. It remains challenging to develop UAV cooperative coverage and UAV energy-efficient communication technology. In this paper, we investigate current works about UAV coverage problem and propose a multi-UAV coverage model based on energy-efficient communication. The proposed model is decomposed into two steps: coverage maximization and power control, both are proved to be exact potential games(EPG) and have Nash equilibrium(NE) points. Then the multi-UAV energy-efficient coverage deployment algorithm based on spatial adaptive play(MUECD-SAP) is adopted to perform coverage maximization and power control, which guarantees optimal energy-efficient coverage deployment. Finally, simulation results show the effectiveness of our proposed approach, and confirm the reliability of proposed model.展开更多
The paper proposes a new swarm intelligence-based distributed Model Predictive Control(MPC)approach for coordination control of multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAVs).First,a distributed MPC framework is designed and...The paper proposes a new swarm intelligence-based distributed Model Predictive Control(MPC)approach for coordination control of multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAVs).First,a distributed MPC framework is designed and each member only shares the information with neighbors.The Chaotic Grey Wolf Optimization(CGWO)method is developed on the basis of chaotic initialization and chaotic search to solve the local Finite Horizon Optimal Control Problem(FHOCP).Then,the distributed cost function is designed and integrated into each FHOCP to achieve multi-UAV formation control and trajectory tracking with no-fly zone constraint.Further,an event-triggered strategy is proposed to reduce the computational burden for the distributed MPC approach,which considers the predicted state errors and the convergence of cost function.Simulation results show that the CGWO-based distributed MPC approach is more computationally efficient to achieve multi-UAV coordination control than traditional method.展开更多
Introducing multi-UAV network with flexible deployment into mobile edge computing(MEC)can effectively improve the quality of service of Internet-of-Things services,reduce the coverage cost and resource waste rate of e...Introducing multi-UAV network with flexible deployment into mobile edge computing(MEC)can effectively improve the quality of service of Internet-of-Things services,reduce the coverage cost and resource waste rate of edge nodes,and also bring some challenges.This paper first introduces the current situation and pain points of mobile edge computing,then analyzes the significance and value of using multi-UAV network to assist mobile edge computing,and summarizes its key technologies and typical applications.In the end,some open research problems and technology prospects of multi-UAV network assisted intelligent edge computing are put forward,which provide new ideas for the future development of this field.展开更多
This paper investigates subcarrier and power allocation in a multi-UAV OFDM system.The study considers a practical scenario,where certain subcarriers are unavailable for dynamic subcarrier allocation,on account of pre...This paper investigates subcarrier and power allocation in a multi-UAV OFDM system.The study considers a practical scenario,where certain subcarriers are unavailable for dynamic subcarrier allocation,on account of pre-allocation for burst transmissions.We first propose a novel iterative algorithm to jointly optimize subcarrier and power allocation,so as to maximize the sum rate of the uplink transmission in the multiUAV OFDM system.The key idea behind our solution is converting the nontrivial allocation problem into a weighted mean square error(MSE) problem.By this means,the allocation problem can be solved by the alternating optimization method.Besides,aiming at a lower-complexity solution,we propose a heuristic allocation scheme,where subcarrier allocation and transmit power allocation are separately optimized.In the heuristic scheme,closedform solution can be obtained for power allocation.Simulation results demonstrate that in the presence of stretched subcarrier resource,the proposed iterative joint optimization algorithm can significantly outperform the heuristic scheme,offering a higher sum rate.展开更多
In this paper,we present a distributed framework for the lidar-based relative state estimator which achieves highly accurate,real-time trajectory estimation of multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAVs)in GPS-denied envi...In this paper,we present a distributed framework for the lidar-based relative state estimator which achieves highly accurate,real-time trajectory estimation of multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAVs)in GPS-denied environments.The system builds atop a factor graph,and only on-board sensors and computing power are utilized.Benefiting from the keyframe strategy,each UAV performs relative state estimation individually and broadcasts very partial information without exchanging raw data.The complete system runs in real-time and is evaluated with three experiments in different environments.Experimental results show that the proposed distributed approach offers comparable performance with a centralized method in terms of accuracy and real-time performance.The flight test demonstrates that the proposed relative state estimation framework is able to be used for aggressive flights over 5 m/s.展开更多
基金supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no.60604009)Aeronautical Science Foundation of China (Grant no.2006ZC51039,Beijing NOVA Program Foundation of China (Grant no.2007A017)+1 种基金Open Fund of the Provincial Key Laboratory for Information Processing Technology,Suzhou University (Grant no KJS0821)"New Scientific Star in Blue Sky"Talent Program of Beihang University of China
文摘Multiple Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles (multi-UAVs) coordinated trajectory replanning is one of the most complicated global optimum problems in multi-UAVs coordinated control. Based on the construction of the basic model of multi-UAVs coordinated trajectory replanning, which includes problem description, threat modeling, constraint conditions, coordinated function and coordination mechanism, a novel Max-Min adaptive Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) approach is presented in detail. In view of the characteristics of multi-UAVs coordinated trajectory replanning in dynamic and uncertain environments, the minimum and maximum pheromone trails in ACO are set to enhance the searching capability, and the point pheromone is adopted to achieve the collision avoidance between UAVs at the trajectory planner layer. Considering the simultaneous arrival and the air-space collision avoidance, an Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) is decided first. Then the trajectory and flight velocity of each UAV are determined. Simulation experiments are performed under the complicated combating environment containing some static threats and popup threats. The results demonstrate the feasibility and the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
基金co-supported by China Scholarship Council(201806830081)National science foundation of China(61827801,61371169,61601167,61601504)+3 种基金Jiangsu NSF(BK20161489)the open research fund of State Key Laboratory of Millimeter Waves,Southeast University(No.K201826)the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(NO.NE2017103and NT2019013)the postgraduate Research and Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province(KYCX18_0293).
文摘Effective information fusion is very important in hybrid source localization. In this paper, the performance analysis of conventional joint direction of arrival(DOA) and time difference of arrival(TDOA) system is derived and it is shown that this hybrid system may inferior to the single system when the ratio of angular measurements error to distance measurements error exceeds a threshold. To avoid this problem, an effective DOA/TDOA adaptive cascaded(DTAC) technique is presented. The rotation feature of UAVs and spatial filtering technique are applied to gain the signal-to-noise ratio(SNR), which leads to more accurate estimation of time delay by using DOAs. Nevertheless, the time delay estimation precision is still limited by the sampling frequency, which is constrained by the finite load of UAV. To break through the limitation, an enhanced self-delay-compensation(SDC) method is proposed, which aims at detecting the overlooked time delay within the sampling interval by adding a tiny time delay. Finally, the position of the source is estimated by the Chan algorithm. Compared to DOA-only algorithm, TDOA-only algorithm and joint DOA/TDOA(JDT) algorithm, the proposed method shows better localization accuracy regardless of different SNRs and sampling frequencies. Numerical simulations are presented to validate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed algorithm.
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 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.
基金co-supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.92371201 and 52192633)the Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi Province of China(No.2022JC-03)the Aeronautical Science Foundation of China(No.ASFC-20220019070002)。
文摘In multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAV)systems,achieving efficient navigation is essential for executing complex tasks and enhancing autonomy.Traditional navigation methods depend on predefined control strategies and trajectory planning and often perform poorly in complex environments.To improve the UAV-environment interaction efficiency,this study proposes a multi-UAV integrated navigation algorithm based on Deep Reinforcement Learning(DRL).This algorithm integrates the Inertial Navigation System(INS),Global Navigation Satellite System(GNSS),and Visual Navigation System(VNS)for comprehensive information fusion.Specifically,an improved multi-UAV integrated navigation algorithm called Information Fusion with MultiAgent Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient(IF-MADDPG)was developed.This algorithm enables UAVs to learn collaboratively and optimize their flight trajectories in real time.Through simulations and experiments,test scenarios in GNSS-denied environments were constructed to evaluate the effectiveness of the algorithm.The experimental results demonstrate that the IF-MADDPG algorithm significantly enhances the collaborative navigation capabilities of multiple UAVs in formation maintenance and GNSS-denied environments.Additionally,it has advantages in terms of mission completion time.This study provides a novel approach for efficient collaboration in multi-UAV systems,which significantly improves the robustness and adaptability of navigation systems.
基金funded by the National Defense Science and Technology Innovation project,grant number ZZKY20223103the Basic Frontier InnovationProject at the Engineering University of PAP,grant number WJY202429+2 种基金the Basic Frontier lnnovation Project at the Engineering University of PAP,grant number WJY202408the Graduate Student Funding Priority Project,grant number JYWJ2024B006Key project of National Social Science Foundation,grant number 2023-SKJJ-A-116.
文摘This study introduces a novel algorithm known as the dung beetle optimization algorithm based on bounded reflection optimization andmulti-strategy fusion(BFDBO),which is designed to tackle the complexities associated with multi-UAV collaborative trajectory planning in intricate battlefield environments.Initially,a collaborative planning cost function for the multi-UAV system is formulated,thereby converting the trajectory planning challenge into an optimization problem.Building on the foundational dung beetle optimization(DBO)algorithm,BFDBO incorporates three significant innovations:a boundary reflection mechanism,an adaptive mixed exploration strategy,and a dynamic multi-scale mutation strategy.These enhancements are intended to optimize the equilibrium between local exploration and global exploitation,facilitating the discovery of globally optimal trajectories thatminimize the cost function.Numerical simulations utilizing the CEC2022 benchmark function indicate that all three enhancements of BFDBOpositively influence its performance,resulting in accelerated convergence and improved optimization accuracy relative to leading optimization algorithms.In two battlefield scenarios of varying complexities,BFDBO achieved a minimum of a 39% reduction in total trajectory planning costs when compared to DBO and three other highperformance variants,while also demonstrating superior average runtime.This evidence underscores the effectiveness and applicability of BFDBO in practical,real-world contexts.
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 Research and Development Program of China under Grant JCKY2018607C019in part by the Key Laboratory Fund of UAV of Northwestern Polytechnical University under Grant 2021JCJQLB0710L.
文摘This paper proposes a Multi-Agent Attention Proximal Policy Optimization(MA2PPO)algorithm aiming at the problems such as credit assignment,low collaboration efficiency and weak strategy generalization ability existing in the cooperative pursuit tasks of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs).Traditional algorithms often fail to effectively identify critical cooperative relationships in such tasks,leading to low capture efficiency and a significant decline in performance when the scale expands.To tackle these issues,based on the proximal policy optimization(PPO)algorithm,MA2PPO adopts the centralized training with decentralized execution(CTDE)framework and introduces a dynamic decoupling mechanism,that is,sharing the multi-head attention(MHA)mechanism for critics during centralized training to solve the credit assignment problem.This method enables the pursuers to identify highly correlated interactions with their teammates,effectively eliminate irrelevant and weakly relevant interactions,and decompose large-scale cooperation problems into decoupled sub-problems,thereby enhancing the collaborative efficiency and policy stability among multiple agents.Furthermore,a reward function has been devised to facilitate the pursuers to encircle the escapee by combining a formation reward with a distance reward,which incentivizes UAVs to develop sophisticated cooperative pursuit strategies.Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in achieving multi-UAV cooperative pursuit and inducing diverse cooperative pursuit behaviors among UAVs.Moreover,experiments on scalability have demonstrated that the algorithm is suitable for large-scale multi-UAV systems.
基金supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China(62273068)the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(3132023512)Dalian Science and Technology Innovation Fund(2019J12GX040).
文摘This paper aims to address the problem of multi-UAV cooperative search for multiple targets in a mountainous environment,considering the constraints of UAV dynamics and prior environmental information.Firstly,using the target probability distribution map,two strategies of information fusion and information diffusion are employed to solve the problem of environmental information inconsistency caused by different UAVs searching different areas,thereby improving the coordination of UAV groups.Secondly,the task region is decomposed into several high-value sub-regions by using data clustering method.Based on this,a hierarchical search strategy is proposed,which allows precise or rough search in different probability areas by adjusting the altitude of the aircraft,thereby improving the search efficiency.Third,the Elite Dung Beetle Optimization Algorithm(EDBOA)is proposed based on bionics by accurately simulating the social behavior of dung beetles to plan paths that satisfy the UAV dynamics constraints and adapt to the mountainous terrain,where the mountain is considered as an obstacle to be avoided.Finally,the objective function for path optimization is formulated by considering factors such as coverage within the task region,smoothness of the search path,and path length.The effectiveness and superiority of the proposed schemes are verified by the simulation.
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supported in part by the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong SAR(Nos.14209020,14206821)in part by the Hong Kong Region Centre for Logistics Robotics(HKCLR).
文摘Unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs)are emerging as a powerful tool for inspections and repair works in large-scale and unstructured 3D infrastructures,but current approaches take a long time to cover the entire area.Planning using UAVs for inspections and repair works puts forward a requirement of improving time efficiency in large-scale and cluster environments.This paper presents a hierarchical multi-UAV cooperative framework for infrastructure inspection and reconstruction to balance the workload and reduce the overall task completion time.The proposed framework consists of two stages,the exploration stage and the exploitation stage,resolving the task in a sequential manner.At the exploration stage,the density map is developed to update global and local information for dynamic load-balanced area partition based on reconstructability and relative positions of UAVs,and the Voronoi-based planner is used to enable the UAVs to reach their best region.After obtaining the global map,viewpoints are generated and divided while taking into account the battery capacity of each UAV.Finally,a shortest path planning method is used to minimize the total traveling cost of these viewpoints for obtaining a high-quality reconstruction.Several experiments are conducted in both a simulated and real environment to show the time efficiency,robustness,and effectiveness of the proposed method.Furthermore,the whole system is implemented in real applications.
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This paper proposes a multi-UAV cooperative exploration approach based on task-density space partition.In the research of multi-UAV cooperative exploration,it is a prevalent cooperative scheme to control robots to work independently in partitioned spaces.Nonetheless,only considering the position of robots during space partition cannot effectively ensure the overall cooperative efficiency.According to research on task density of current time points and positions of robots during exploration,robots with fewer task points are assigned to work in spaces with more tasks in the rolling horizon optimization planning mode,which can reduce the redundancy of multi-robot cooperative work.Comparative research suggests that the overall exploration efficiency is improved.
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 in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.61671031,61722102,91738301)。
文摘With the rapid development of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle(UAV)technology,one of the emerging fields is to utilize multi-UAV as a team under autonomous control in a complex environment.Among the challenges in fully achieving autonomous control,Cooperative task assignment stands out as the key function.In this paper,we analyze the importance and difficulties of multiUAV cooperative task assignment in characterizing scenarios and obtaining high-quality solutions.Furthermore,we present three promising directions for future research:Cooperative task assignment in a dynamic complex environment,in an unmanned-manned aircraft system and in a UAV swarm.Our goal is to provide a brief review of multi-UAV cooperative task assignment for readers to further explore.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 61771488in part by the Natural Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars of Jiangsu Province under Grant No. BK20160034+1 种基金 in part by the Open Research Foundation of Science and Technology on Communication Networks Laboratorythe Guang Xi Universities Key Laboratory Fund of Embedded Technology and Intelligent System (Guilin University of Technology)
文摘UAV cooperative control has been applied in many complex UAV communication networks. It remains challenging to develop UAV cooperative coverage and UAV energy-efficient communication technology. In this paper, we investigate current works about UAV coverage problem and propose a multi-UAV coverage model based on energy-efficient communication. The proposed model is decomposed into two steps: coverage maximization and power control, both are proved to be exact potential games(EPG) and have Nash equilibrium(NE) points. Then the multi-UAV energy-efficient coverage deployment algorithm based on spatial adaptive play(MUECD-SAP) is adopted to perform coverage maximization and power control, which guarantees optimal energy-efficient coverage deployment. Finally, simulation results show the effectiveness of our proposed approach, and confirm the reliability of proposed model.
基金co-supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.61803009,61903084)Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China(No.YWF-20-BJ-J-542)Aeronautical Science Foundation of China(No.20175851032)。
文摘The paper proposes a new swarm intelligence-based distributed Model Predictive Control(MPC)approach for coordination control of multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAVs).First,a distributed MPC framework is designed and each member only shares the information with neighbors.The Chaotic Grey Wolf Optimization(CGWO)method is developed on the basis of chaotic initialization and chaotic search to solve the local Finite Horizon Optimal Control Problem(FHOCP).Then,the distributed cost function is designed and integrated into each FHOCP to achieve multi-UAV formation control and trajectory tracking with no-fly zone constraint.Further,an event-triggered strategy is proposed to reduce the computational burden for the distributed MPC approach,which considers the predicted state errors and the convergence of cost function.Simulation results show that the CGWO-based distributed MPC approach is more computationally efficient to achieve multi-UAV coordination control than traditional method.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(NSFC)with Grant 61720106001。
文摘Introducing multi-UAV network with flexible deployment into mobile edge computing(MEC)can effectively improve the quality of service of Internet-of-Things services,reduce the coverage cost and resource waste rate of edge nodes,and also bring some challenges.This paper first introduces the current situation and pain points of mobile edge computing,then analyzes the significance and value of using multi-UAV network to assist mobile edge computing,and summarizes its key technologies and typical applications.In the end,some open research problems and technology prospects of multi-UAV network assisted intelligent edge computing are put forward,which provide new ideas for the future development of this field.
基金supported by China NSF Grants(61631020)the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(NP2018103,NE2017103,NC2017003)
文摘This paper investigates subcarrier and power allocation in a multi-UAV OFDM system.The study considers a practical scenario,where certain subcarriers are unavailable for dynamic subcarrier allocation,on account of pre-allocation for burst transmissions.We first propose a novel iterative algorithm to jointly optimize subcarrier and power allocation,so as to maximize the sum rate of the uplink transmission in the multiUAV OFDM system.The key idea behind our solution is converting the nontrivial allocation problem into a weighted mean square error(MSE) problem.By this means,the allocation problem can be solved by the alternating optimization method.Besides,aiming at a lower-complexity solution,we propose a heuristic allocation scheme,where subcarrier allocation and transmit power allocation are separately optimized.In the heuristic scheme,closedform solution can be obtained for power allocation.Simulation results demonstrate that in the presence of stretched subcarrier resource,the proposed iterative joint optimization algorithm can significantly outperform the heuristic scheme,offering a higher sum rate.
基金supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China(No.2018AAA0102401)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.62022060,61773278,61873340).
文摘In this paper,we present a distributed framework for the lidar-based relative state estimator which achieves highly accurate,real-time trajectory estimation of multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAVs)in GPS-denied environments.The system builds atop a factor graph,and only on-board sensors and computing power are utilized.Benefiting from the keyframe strategy,each UAV performs relative state estimation individually and broadcasts very partial information without exchanging raw data.The complete system runs in real-time and is evaluated with three experiments in different environments.Experimental results show that the proposed distributed approach offers comparable performance with a centralized method in terms of accuracy and real-time performance.The flight test demonstrates that the proposed relative state estimation framework is able to be used for aggressive flights over 5 m/s.
