An adaptive, balanced and energy efficient clustering mechanism for UAV networks

Harun Emre Kıran,Sedat Görmüş

doi:10.5505/pajes.2020.53059

Abstract

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are widely used in many fields, both civilian and military. Mostly mini UAVs are used in civilian applications which are preferred both in terms of affordability and availability. However, these vehicles are insufficient for some applications when they are used alone. This inadequacy is often observed in mini-UAVs having limited capacity in terms of energy storage and payloads. As a solution to this challenge, swarms of networked mini UAVs have been proposed. Thus, the UAVs in such networks are assigned with different tasks to accomplish the overall mission. While such UAV networks have many advantages, they also come with challenges. These challenges include limited on-board energy storage, low power and lossy wireless communication interface, and limited useful payload carrying capability. In this study, a new adaptive, balanced and energy efficient clustering mechanism has been proposed for such UAV networks.

Highlights

Mini Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are used in civilian applications which are preferred both in terms of affordability and availability
A new adaptive, balanced and energy efficient clustering mechanism has been proposed for such UAV networks
The performance results of the UAV network are presented for different scenarios with several predetermined thresholds

Summary

Introduction

Ad-hoc networks consist of mobile wireless nodes without a fixed infrastructure [1]. These networks are interconnected according to the application use cases [2]. Unmanned air vehicle (UAV) swarms are ad-hoc networks where nodes communicate with each other to coordinate and control the network and perform pre-determined tasks [3]. UAV swarms have found widespread applications in many areas ranging from military to search and rescue [4]. The defense industry actively carries out research to come up with novel applications involving UAV swarms [5],[6]. Civilian UAV swarm applications such as search and rescue [7], surveillance [8] and disaster management [9] have recently become popular

Objectives

Results

Conclusion