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In today’s technological world, carrying out daily tasks via drones is no longer a far-fetched concept. Smart delivery systems for domestic applications are an inevitable transition of UAVs from commercial to domestic usage, announcing the age where there are “drones for everyone”. From leisure pursuits to disaster management, from environmental mapping to search and rescue operations, from supervisory tasks to delivering mail, UAVs are the answer.
A number of drones attempting a task in a coordinated manner is what we call a swarm. Like humans, coordinated effort brings both efficiency and reliability via diversity and redundancy. The aim of this publication is to provide a cognitive communication solution for drone swarm surveillance in urban/outreach areas using a hybrid connectivity module that can enable the coexistence of 5G infrastructures and adaptive multi-band waveforms. The seamless connectivity via efficient next generation waveforms and suitable algorithms can ensure the efficient implementation of versatile drone swarm operations. Such strong technology enables a group of UAVs to operate in a swarm, forming an aerial Internet of Things (IoT).
In this publication, we address the challenge of UAV swarm communications by presenting a framework that offers an open-interface communication and networking solution for surveillance operations in urban/outreach areas. It is based on a hybrid connectivity module that can enable the coexistence of 5G infrastructures, adaptive multiband software defined radio (SDR) waveforms empowered with cooperative communication capacities, and satellite communications for continuous swarm operation in any demographic area.
The developed heterogeneous communication solution for drone swarms has many applications ranging from surveillance and security to agriculture monitoring. For instance, monitoring ecological and environmental conditions favourable to the survival and breeding of desert locusts requires multiple UAV swarms for distributed ground monitoring and decision-making for control interventions against initial locust congregations. Such swarm operations can benefit from Satcomm for GCS connection, and hybrid SDR waveforms can be used for inter-swarm and intra-swarm communications. On the other hand, patrolling and mob-surveillance in urban areas requires collaborative communication among UAVs to form multi-angular video feed across different locations of interest, enabling rapid data collection with high quality, range, and resolution.
The future prospects of this research include the development of an efficient and open-interface hybrid connectivity solution with enhanced battery times, effective Media Access Control (MAC) and routing protocols for flying ad hoc network (FANET), selection of appropriate mobility models, an effective charging mechanism, and collaborative formation and control in the presence of harsh channel conditions.
The industry applications of this research include surveillance and security, track and trace, transportation infrastructure, railway track monitoring, forest monitoring, disaster management, and agriculture monitoring including crop and pest monitoring.
Publication Title: 5G/SDR-Assisted Cognitive Communication in UAV Swarms: Architecture and Applications
Authors: Muhammad Zeeshan, Muhammad Umar Farooq, Kashif Shahzad, Adnan Akhunzada
Publication Date: 30 June 2022
Name of Journal: IEEE IT Professional
Link to publication: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=9811512