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A distributed task reassignment method in dynamic environment for multi-UAV system

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Abstract

This paper considers the task reassignment problem for distributed multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (multi-UAV) systems in dynamic environment. For a dynamic reassignment problem in a multi-UAV system, the task information may be subject to different dynamic events, and many existing task allocation algorithms require much computation and communication resource to achieve a feasible solution. Hence, this paper proposes a distributed method to cope with dynamic events that occur online during the execution of original schedules. First, a distributed framework for determining the processing strategy according to the types of dynamic events is introduced. Second, a partial reassignment algorithm (PRA) is proposed to support the framework and an incremental subteam formation mechanism and a partial releasing mechanism are developed to release the computation and communication burden. Furthermore, a modified inclusion phase to maximize assignment (MIP-MA) is also proposed in PRA to maximize the number of task allocations. Numerical simulations demonstrate that the proposed method is able to provide a conflict-free solution with less data exchanges and runtime.

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Acknowledgements

Mi Yang and Wenhao Bi contributed equally to this article. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 61903305, No. 62073267), the Aeronautical Science Fund (No. 201905053001) and the Research Funds for Interdisciplinary Subject, NWPU.

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  1. School of Aeronautics, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, 710072, China

    Mi Yang, Wenhao Bi, An Zhang & Fei Gao

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  1. Mi Yang
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Correspondence to Wenhao Bi.

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This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 61903305, No. 62073267), the Aeronautical Science Fund (No. 201905053001) and the Research Funds for Interdisciplinary Subject, NWPU.

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Yang, M., Bi, W., Zhang, A. et al. A distributed task reassignment method in dynamic environment for multi-UAV system. Appl Intell 52, 1582–1601 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10489-021-02502-3

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