Robust Energy-Aware Routing for Air-Ground Cooperative Multi-UAV Delivery in Wind-Uncertain Environments

TL;DR

This paper introduces BER, an online risk-sensitive routing framework for UAV delivery that accounts for wind uncertainty, improving safety and success rates in dynamic environments.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel energy-aware routing method that dynamically adapts to wind conditions, unlike prior static or deterministic models.

Findings

BER significantly increases mission success rates.

BER reduces wind-induced failures in UAV delivery.

Simulations show improved reliability over static baselines.

Abstract

Ensuring energy feasibility under wind uncertainty is critical for the safety and reliability of UAV delivery missions. In realistic truck-drone logistics systems, UAVs must deliver parcels and safely return under time-varying wind conditions that are only partially observable during flight. However, most existing routing approaches assume static or deterministic energy models, making them unreliable in dynamic wind environments. We propose Battery-Efficient Routing (BER), an online risk-sensitive planning framework for wind-sensitive truck-assisted UAV delivery. The problem is formulated as routing on a time dependent energy graph whose edge costs evolve according to wind-induced aerodynamic effects. BER continuously evaluates return feasibility while balancing instantaneous energy expenditure and uncertainty-aware risk. The approach is embedded in a hierarchical aerial-ground delivery architecture that combines task allocation, routing, and decentralized trajectory execution. Extensive simulations on synthetic ER graphs generated in Unreal Engine environments and quasi-real wind logs demonstrate that BER significantly improves mission success rates and reduces wind-induced failures compared with static and greedy baselines. These results highlight the importance of integrating real-time energy budgeting and environmental awareness for UAV delivery planning under dynamic wind conditions.