Efficient Deployment of Multiple RPAS - Approaches towards Optimal Mission Planning Techniques
Julia Zillies, Dagi Geister · 2015
Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) have shown a great potential for civil usage during the last years. Different platforms have been used after several major disasters and provided great support to the different phases of crisis management. DLR’s Institute of Flight Guidance currently works on several projects, that deal with RPAS use in disaster management missions as well as in maritime security missions. Large scale disasters like Tsunamis, floods, or extensive forest fires might possibly require the use of several RPAS at the same time. It is known from several applications that the performance of the whole group will improve if all members of a swarm work cooperatively. Therefore, various researches have striven towards development and application of different algorithms, that enable optimized mission planning for a group of RPAS. While several studies focus on strategic mission planning approaches, this contribution also examines online optimization methods to deal with arising demands during mission execution in a most efficient way. Selected methods have been integrated and tested within DLR’s Research Ground Control Station (GCS) U-Fly.