Agent model for multi-UAV control via protocol designs

Abstract

Purpose Cooperative control of a group of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is an important area of research. The purpose of this paper is to explore multi-UAV control in the framework of providing surveillance of areas of interest with automatic loss detection and replacement capabilities. Design/methodology/approach The research is based on the concept of the multi-agent system. The authors present the framework of the multi-agent and protocol design for monitoring the network of a group of UAVs. Findings If one or more UAVs which is conducting a high priority surveillance task is lost, the system can self-arrange for another UAV to replace the lost UAV and continue to execute its task. This research provides an excellent design protocol for UAV loss detection and replacement scheme. Research limitations/implications One of the major limitations of this research is that we have only two types of priority levels, high or low. If the priority is more than two levels, for example, high priority 1, high priority 2, or high priority 3, the replacement has not yet been implemented. Originality/value This paper contributes to the following two aspects of the scientific knowledge. The first contribution is the design of an agent model which jointly considers system architecture, communication, control logic and target monitoring. The second contribution includes the decentralized and automatic UAV loss detection and replacement algorithm.