UAVs for law enforcement: A case study for connectivity and fuel management

Derya Aksaray, Kelly Griendling, Dimitri Mavris

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

In recent years, a large amount of research has been conducted for the cooperative control and design of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that work together to accomplish complex missions such as persistent surveillance. This paper addresses a law enforcement scenario, where the goal is to maximize the situational awareness over an area. In order to achieve this goal, a ground station (base) sends a group of autonomous UAVs to the field, and the UAVs broadcast the monitored information back to the base through multi-hop communications. Typically, the UAVs need to return to the base for refueling in long-run missions. Whenever a UAV returns to the base, the remaining vehicles on the field may require a relocation to avoid any communication loss. Accordingly, the objective of this paper is to identify the influential design variables (i.e. impacting vehicle endurance) and control policies (i.e. aiding decisions about when to return and how to reconfigure) of UAVs on the mission performance as well as to investigate any trade-offs between them. The Monte Carlo simulations indicate that velocity and radius of communication are more influential on the situational awareness than the fuel capacity. Moreover, the influence of fuel capacity is more reduced as the connectivity recovery strategies are utilized by the UAVs.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationAIAA AVIATION 2014 -14th AIAA Aviation Technology, Integration, and Operations Conference
PublisherAmerican Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc.
ISBN (Print)9781624102820
DOIs
StatePublished - 2014
Externally publishedYes
EventAIAA AVIATION 2014 -14th AIAA Aviation Technology, Integration, and Operations Conference 2014 - Atlanta, GA, United States
Duration: Jun 16 2014Jun 20 2014

Publication series

NameAIAA AVIATION 2014 -14th AIAA Aviation Technology, Integration, and Operations Conference

Conference

ConferenceAIAA AVIATION 2014 -14th AIAA Aviation Technology, Integration, and Operations Conference 2014
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityAtlanta, GA
Period6/16/146/20/14

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