BOLD: Bio-Inspired Optimized Leader Election for Multiple Drones

Fixed-Time Coverage Control of Mobile Robot Networks Considering the Time Cost Metric

In this work, we studied the area coverage control problem (ACCP) based on the time cost metric of a robot network with an input disturbance in a dynamic environment, which was modeled by a time-varying risk density function. A coverage control method based on the time cost metric was proposed. The area coverage task that considers the time cost consists of two phases: the robot network is driven to cover the task area with a time-optimal effect in the first phase; the second phase is when the accident occurs and the robot is driven to the accident site at maximum speed. Considering that there were movable objects in the task area, a time-varying risk density function was used to describe the risk degree at different locations in the task area. In the presence of the input disturbance, a robust controller was designed to drive each robot, with different maximum control input values, to the position that locally minimized the time cost metric function in a fixed time, and the conditions for maximum control input were obtained. Finally, simulation results and comparison result are presented in this paper.

Scale Factor Estimation for Quadrotor Monocular-Vision Positioning Algorithms

Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) autonomous navigation requires access to translational and rotational positions and velocities. Since there is no single sensor to measure all UAV states, it is necessary to fuse information from multiple sensors. This paper proposes a deterministic estimator to reconstruct the scale factor of the position determined by a simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) algorithm onboard a quadrotor UAV. The position scale factor is unknown when the SLAM algorithm relies on the information from a monocular camera. Only onboard sensor measurements can feed the estimator; thus, a deterministic observer is designed to rebuild the quadrotor translational velocity. The estimator and the observer are designed following the immersion and invariance method and use inertial and visual measurements. Lyapunov's arguments prove the asymptotic convergence of observer and estimator errors to zero. The proposed estimator's and observer's performance is validated through numerical simulations using a physics-based simulator.

GAPSO-Optimized Fuzzy PID Controller for Electric-Driven Seeding

To improve the seeding motor control performance of electric-driven seeding (EDS), a genetic particle swarm optimization (GAPSO)-optimized fuzzy PID control strategy for electric-driven seeding was designed. Since the parameters of the fuzzy controller were difficult to determine, two quantization factors were applied to the input of the fuzzy controller, and three scaling factors were introduced into the output of fuzzy controller. Genetic algorithm (GA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) were combined into GAPSO by a genetic screening method. GAPSO was introduced to optimize the initial values of the two quantization factors, three scaling factors, and three characteristic functions before updating. The simulation results showed that the maximum overshoot of the GAPSO-based fuzzy PID controller system was 0.071%, settling time was 0.408 s, and steady-state error was 3.0693 × 10^-5, which indicated the excellent control performance of the proposed strategy. Results of the field experiment showed that the EDS had better performance than the ground wheel chain sprocket seeding (GCSS). With a seeder operating speed of 6km/h, the average qualified index (I_q) was 95.83%, the average multiple index (I_mult) was 1.11%, the average missing index (I_miss) was 3.23%, and the average precision index (I_p) was 14.64%. The research results provide a reference for the parameter tuning mode of the fuzzy PID controller for EDS.

Coverage Area Decision Model by Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Base Stations for Ad Hoc Networks

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) deployment and placement are largely dependent upon the available energy, feasible scenario, and secure network. The feasible placement of UAV nodes to cover the cellular networks need optimal altitude. The under or over-estimation of nodes' air timing leads to of resource waste or inefficiency of the mission. Multiple factors influence the estimation of air timing, but the majority of the literature concentrates only on flying time. Some other factors also degrade network performance, such as unauthorized access to UAV nodes. In this paper, the UAV coverage issue is considered, and a Coverage Area Decision Model for UAV-BS is proposed. The proposed solution is designed for cellular network coverage by using UAV nodes that are controlled and managed for reallocation, which will be able to change position per requirements. The proposed solution is evaluated and tested in simulation in terms of its performance. The proposed solution achieved better results in terms of placement in the network. The simulation results indicated high performance in terms of high packet delivery, less delay, less overhead, and better malicious node detection.

Voting-Based Scheme for Leader Election in Lead-Follow UAV Swarm with Constrained Communication

The recent advances in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) enormously improve their utility and expand their application scope. The UAV and swarm implementation further prevail in Smart City practices with the aid of edge computing and urban Internet of Things. The lead–follow formation in UAV swarm is an important organization means and has been adopted in diverse exercises, for its efficiency and ease of control. However, the reliability of centralization makes the entire swarm system in risk of collapse and instability, if a fatal fault incident happens in the leader. The motivation is to build a mechanism helping the distributed swarm recover from possible failures. Existing ways include assigning definite backups, temporary clustering and traversing to select a new leader are traditional ways that lack flexibility and adaptability. In this article, we propose a voting-based leader election scheme inspired by the Raft method in distributed computation consensus to solve the problem. We further discuss the impact of communication conditions imposed on the decentralized voting process by implementing a network resource pool. To dynamically evaluate UAV individuals, we outline measurement design principles and provide a realizable calculation example. Lastly but not least, empirical simulation results manifest better performance than the Raft-based method. Our voting-based approach exhibits advantages and is a promising way for quick regrouping and fault recovery in lead–follow swarms.

Design and Experimental Comparison of PID, LQR and MPC Stabilizing Controllers for Parrot Mambo Mini-Drone

Parrot Mambo mini-drone is a readily available commercial quadrotor platform to understand and analyze the behavior of a quadrotor both in indoor and outdoor applications. This study evaluates the performance of three alternative controllers on a Parrot Mambo mini-drone in an interior environment, including Proportional–Integral–Derivative (PID), Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR), and Model Predictive Control (MPC). To investigate the controllers’ performance, initially, the MATLAB®/Simulink™ environment was considered as the simulation platform. The successful simulation results finally led to the implementation of the controllers in real-time in the Parrot Mambo mini-drone. Here, MPC surpasses PID and LQR in ensuring the system’s stability and robustness in simulation and real-time experiment results. Thus, this work makes a contribution by introducing the impact of MPC on this quadrotor platform, such as system stability and robustness, and showing its efficacy over PID and LQR. All three controllers demonstrate similar tracking performance in simulations and experiments. In steady state, the maximal pitch deviation for the PID controller is 0.075 rad, for the LQR, it is 0.025 rad, and for the MPC, it is 0.04 rad. The maximum pitch deviation for the PID-based controller is 0.3 rad after the take-off impulse, 0.06 rad for the LQR, and 0.17 rad for the MPC.

A Multi-Colony Social Learning Approach for the Self-Organization of a Swarm of UAVs

This research offers an improved method for the self-organization of a swarm of UAVs based on a social learning approach. To start, we use three different colonies and three best members i.e., unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) randomly placed in the colonies. This study uses max-min ant colony optimization (MMACO) in conjunction with social learning mechanism to plan the optimized path for an individual colony. Hereinafter, the multi-agent system (MAS) chooses the most optimal UAV as the leader of each colony and the remaining UAVs as agents, which helps to organize the randomly positioned UAVs into three different formations. Afterward, the algorithm synchronizes and connects the three colonies into a swarm and controls it using dynamic leader selection. The major contribution of this study is to hybridize two different approaches to produce a more optimized, efficient, and effective strategy. The results verify that the proposed algorithm completes the given objectives. This study also compares the designed method with the Non-Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II) to prove that our method offers better convergence and reaches the target using a shorter route than NSGA-II.

Bio-inspired computation for big data fusion, storage, processing, learning and visualization: state of the art and future directions

This overview gravitates on research achievements that have recently emerged from the confluence between Big Data technologies and bio-inspired computation. A manifold of reasons can be identified for the profitable synergy between these two paradigms, all rooted on the adaptability, intelligence and robustness that biologically inspired principles can provide to technologies aimed to manage, retrieve, fuse and process Big Data efficiently. We delve into this research field by first analyzing in depth the existing literature, with a focus on advances reported in the last few years. This prior literature analysis is complemented by an identification of the new trends and open challenges in Big Data that remain unsolved to date, and that can be effectively addressed by bio-inspired algorithms. As a second contribution, this work elaborates on how bio-inspired algorithms need to be adapted for their use in a Big Data context, in which data fusion becomes crucial as a previous step to allow processing and mining several and potentially heterogeneous data sources. This analysis allows exploring and comparing the scope and efficiency of existing approaches across different problems and domains, with the purpose of identifying new potential applications and research niches. Finally, this survey highlights open issues that remain unsolved to date in this research avenue, alongside a prescription of recommendations for future research.