Scheduling and Sequence Reshuffle for Autonomous Aerial Refueling of Multiple UAVs (Preprint)

Abstract

In this paper, we formulate the autonomous aerial refueling of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as a scheduling problem. In order to find the optimal refueling sequence of UAVs, an efficient dynamic programming algorithm is introduced. When UAVs leave or join the queue, the optimal sequence needs to be recalculated. A systematic reshuffling method is developed such that the UAV sequence can be reconfigured by using the least amount of shuffle steps, where only one UAV changes its position in each step. By introducing a metric over UAV sequences, this reconfiguration effort is quantified and is treated as an additional cost which is integrated into the dynamic programming algorithm.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2006
Accession Number
ADA455631

Entities

People

  • Corey J. Schumacher
  • Tal Shima
  • Zhipu Jin

Organizations

  • Ohio State University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Autonomy

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Air Force Research Laboratories
  • Aircrafts
  • Algorithms
  • Computations
  • Computer Programming
  • Dynamic Programming
  • Engineering
  • Government Procurement
  • Governments
  • Military Research
  • Refueling
  • Refueling In Flight
  • Scheduling (Production)
  • Tanker Aircraft
  • Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
  • Vehicles

Fields of Study

  • Computer science

Readers

  • Operations Research
  • Parallel and Distributed Computing.
  • Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Autonomous Capabilities and Mission Reconnaissance.

Technology Areas

  • Autonomy
  • Autonomy - UAVs