Research and Demonstration of Video Streaming on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) Networks

Abstract : This project has led to a number of findings and conclusions. The main results concern the task of using one or more Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to relay messages or videos between two distant ground nodes. A protocol, called load-carry-and-deliver (LCAD), has been developed and implemented, where a UAV load from a source ground node, carries the data while flying to the destination, and finally delivers the data to a destination ground node. For delay-tolerant applications like latency-insensitive bulk data transfer and video streaming, it is demonstrated in field experiments that LCAD can maximize throughput. In addition, the project delivered a simple lab demonstration system to AFRL which shows the feasibility of dynamically adapting video source coding, based on the quality of the video transporting wireless link.