A distributed algorithm for UAV-based communication networks using constrained extremum seeking

Abstract

Unmanned autonomous vehicles offer a solution to maintaining adaptive multi-hop communication paths when fixed infrastructure is not available, as may be the case in disaster recovery or in contested environments. Some of the potential challenges these networks face are changing environmental conditions, changing numbers of available agents and the need to avoid certain domains. In this paper, a distributed implementation of a constrained extremum seeking approach is proposed to optimise the signal power along the communication chain by adapting vehicle locations within allowable regions. The approach is demonstrated via simulations that consider both homogeneous and heterogeneous signal transmission pathways.