Information Sharing in Cooperative Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Teams

Abstract

This paper considers the problem of cooperative search and task response in a heterogeneous team of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with limited communication. The UAVs are engaged in a mission to search and verifiably destroy targets in an uncertain environment. The UAVs do not have access to centralized information, and each UAV makes its decisions based on subjective information obtained through observation and communication with other UAVs. We present a strategy for information sharing and fusion, and study the impact of this strategy's parameters on the performance of the UAV team.