Indoor UAV scheduling with Restful Task Assignment Algorithm

TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel UAV scheduling method for indoor environments that combines a Restful Task Assignment Algorithm with Particle Swarm Optimization to enhance safety by preserving battery life and reducing failure risk.

Contribution

It introduces a new heuristic approach integrating Restful Task Assignment with PSO for indoor UAV scheduling, focusing on battery preservation and operational safety.

Findings

Effective in maintaining higher battery levels during operations

Reduces UAV failure probability in indoor environments

Performs well across various benchmark scenarios

Abstract

Research in UAV scheduling has obtained an emerging interest from scientists in the optimization field. When the scheduling itself has established a strong root since the 19th century, works on UAV scheduling in indoor environment has come forth in the latest decade. Several works on scheduling UAV operations in indoor (two and three dimensional) and outdoor environments are reported. In this paper, a further study on UAV scheduling in three dimensional indoor environment is investigated. Dealing with indoor environment\textemdash where humans, UAVs, and other elements or infrastructures are likely to coexist in the same space\textemdash draws attention towards the safety of the operations. In relation to the battery level, a preserved battery level leads to safer operations, promoting the UAV to have a decent remaining power level. A methodology which consists of a heuristic approach based on Restful Task Assignment Algorithm, incorporated with Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm, is proposed. The motivation is to preserve the battery level throughout the operations, which promotes less possibility in having failed UAVs on duty. This methodology is tested with 54 benchmark datasets stressing on 4 different aspects: geographical distance, number of tasks, number of predecessors, and slack time. The test results and their characteristics in regard to the proposed methodology are discussed and presented.