On systems of UAVs for persistent security presence: A generic network representation, MDP formulation and heuristics for task allocation

Minjun Kim, James R. Morrison

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

We develop a task allocation method for persistent UAV security presence (PUSP). UAVs accompany customers and thereby provide security services to them. Key features incorporated are randomness in the arrival of customers and travel durations. We formalize our system as a general network consisting of nodes, arcs, UAVs and routes. From the network, we automatically generate a Markov decision process (MDP) model and simulator. The MDP formulation can be solved exactly only for small problems. In such cases, we employ classic value iteration to obtain optimal polices. To address larger systems consisting of more resources, we develop a greedy task assignment heuristic (GTAH) and simplified MDP heuristics (SMH). Numerical studies demonstrate that the GTAH is approximately 10% suboptimal and that the SMH is about 4% suboptimal with regard to small-scale problems. For larger problems (~1090 states), the performance of the SMH is approximately 3% better than that of the GTAH.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2019 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems, ICUAS 2019
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages238-245
Number of pages8
ISBN (Electronic)9781728103327
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2019
Event2019 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems, ICUAS 2019 - Atlanta, United States
Duration: Jun 11 2019Jun 14 2019

Publication series

Name2019 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems, ICUAS 2019

Conference

Conference2019 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems, ICUAS 2019
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityAtlanta
Period06/11/1906/14/19

Keywords

  • Automatic generation process
  • Heuristic
  • Markov decision process
  • Network modeling
  • Persistent UAV service
  • Task allocation

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