Multi-UAV Reconnaissance Task Allocation in 3D Urban Environments

Abstract

This paper considers a reconnaissance task allocation problem for multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in 3D urban environments. In this paper, we present an extended heterogeneous targets reconnaissance task allocation model which introduced cuboid targets for 3D urban environment to improve the fidelity of the model. A reconnaissance method is designed for each type of target, and the mission is described as a heterogeneous target multi-traveling salesman problem model for solving complex optimization problems with multiple constraints.To address these complex optimization problems, multi-group symbiotic organisms search algorithms (MGSOS) are proposed, which maintain the diversity of species in the population through multi-group strategies and enhance information exchange between individuals in three stages. Real-number encoding is used to satisfy partial constraints and simplify the search space, improving the optimization efficiency of the solution. The simulation results show that the MGSOS algorithm can consider the characteristics of UAV sensor performance and heterogeneous targets. It outperforms the common symbiotic organisms search (SOS) algorithm in terms of the optimality of assignment results, and is suitable for larger scale urban reconnaissance task allocation problems.INDEX TERMS 3D urban environment, generalized multi-traveling salesman problem, np-hard problem, symbiotic organisms search, task allocation, unmanned aerial vehicle.