Autonomous UAV Sensor Planning, Scheduling and Maneuvering: An Obstacle Engagement Technique

When unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) support the Corps of Engineers in reconnaissance operations, in order to gather visible image information that should meet the mission’s need, we grouped the engineering reconnaissance information interpretation tasks into 10 levels by using the National Imagery Interpretability Rating Scale (NIIRS). The quantitative relationship between the engineering targets, sensor performance, and flight altitude was established through the general image quality equation (GIQE) and the geometrical property of the ground sampled distance (GSD). Through some simulations, the influence of variable factors of the EO sensor imaging quality was analyzed, and the imaging height of the sensor for an engineering reconnaissance scenario was calculated. The results showed that this study could solve the problem of poor image quality caused by the flight altitude not meeting the mission requirements.

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Mobile sensors' patrol path planning in unobservable border region

International Journal of Intelligent Computing and Cybernetics ◽

10.1108/ijicc-03-2020-0026 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (3) ◽

pp. 311-329 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Wichai Pawgasame ◽

Komwut Wipusitwarakun

Keyword(s):

Path Planning ◽

Research Paper ◽

Resource Scarcity ◽

Border Region ◽

Sensor Planning ◽

Environmental Characteristics ◽

Problem Model ◽

Content Type ◽

Planning Scheme ◽

Border Surveillance

PurposeThe border control becomes challenging when a protected region is large and there is a limited number of border patrols. This research paper proposes a novel heuristic-based patrol path planning scheme in order to efficiently patrol with resource scarcity.Design/methodology/approachThe trespasser influencing score, which is determined from the environmental characteristics and trespassing statistic of the region, is used as a heuristic for measuring a chance of approaching a trespasser. The patrol plan is occasionally updated with a new trespassing statistic during a border operation. The performance of the proposed patrol path planning scheme was evaluated and compared with other patrol path planning schemes by the empirical experiment under different scenarios.FindingsThe result from the experiment indicates that the proposed patrol planning outperforms other patrol path planning schemes in terms of the trespasser detection rate, when more environment-aware trespassers are in the region.Research limitations/implicationsThe experiment was conducted through simulated agents in simulated environment, which were assumed to mimic real behavior and environment.Originality/valueThis research paper contributes a heuristic-based patrol path planning scheme that applies the environmental characteristics and dynamic statistic of the region, as well as a border surveillance problem model that would be useful for mobile sensor planning in a border surveillance application.

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