Optimal control of a diffusion process using networked unmanned aerial systems with smart health

Abstract In many future applications, such as pesticide spraying, unmanned aerial systems (UASs) are expected to operate cooperatively in a swarm configuration. A cyber-physical framework based on Centroidal Voronoi Tessellations (CVT) has been shown to provide optimal placement for sensors or actuators and can be used effectively for the control of a diffusion process such as a pathogen infection. However, previous work did not consider real-world constraints such as the effect of the UASs health on swarm utilization. While health degradation over time is inevitable, mismanaged swarms face expedited health degradation from over-utilization of one UAS over others. In this paper, a novel smart health balancing (SHB) system is implemented to extend the life of the most heavily taxed UASs and thus extending the life of the entire UAS swarm. The effectiveness of the proposed system is demonstrated with simulation results.