Wireless Communication Networks Between Distributed Autonomous Systems Using Self-Tuning Extremum Control
Deok Jin Lee, Khim Yee. Kam, Isaac I. Kaminer, Douglas P. Horner, ANTHONY J. HEALEY, Sean P. Kragelund, Klas Andersson, Kevin Jones · AIAA Infotech@Aerospace Conference · 2009
This paper represents an effective optimization approach for building high bandwidth wireless communication networks between distributed autonomous systems using unmanned aerial vehicles as airborne relay nodes. A self-tuning extremum control technique is developed to find an optimal location of the aerial vehicles to provide maximum communication throughputs. The idea behind the self-tuning control is to use an on-line gradient estimator to identify the derivative of a cost function and to use this as an input to a gradient-based hill-climbing algorithm. The on-line estimation of the gradient of a performance function is achieved by utilizing a perturbation-based peek-seeking approach which provides a quantitative gradient value of the cost function in a numerical way. Flight experiments are conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed airborne wireless sensor networking control algorithm. I.