Constraint-based Formation of Drone Swarms

TL;DR

This paper presents a formation-based approach for drone swarms to optimize delivery in smart cities, utilizing adaptive formations, city rooftops, and a heuristic routing algorithm to enhance efficiency and safety.

Contribution

It introduces an adaptive formation method for drone swarms that adjusts in-flight to external constraints, improving delivery efficiency in urban environments.

Findings

Demonstrated multi-stop drone delivery in a smart city setting.

Developed an adaptive formation system for drone swarms.

Implemented a heuristic A* algorithm for routing in a city skyway network.

Abstract

Drone swarms are required for the simultaneous delivery of multiple packages. We demonstrate a multi-stop drone swarm-based delivery in a smart city. We leverage formation flying to conserve energy and increase the flight range of a drone swarm. An adaptive formation is presented in which a swarm adjusts to extrinsic constraints and changes the formation pattern in-flight. We utilize the existing building rooftops in a city and build a line-of-sight skyway network to safely operate the swarms. We use a heuristic-based A* algorithm to route a drone swarm in a skyway network.