U-SMART: unified swarm management and resource tracking framework for unoccupied aerial vehicles

Abstract

Unoccupied aerial vehicle (UAV) swarms have the ability to exhibit improved capabilities and performance when compared to individual UAVs. However, their target operation environment is fraught with disruptions, including communication limitations, sensor failures, and dynamic environmental conditions, which can significantly impact swarm performance and robustness. To address these challenges, the proposed unified swarm management and resource tracking (U-SMART) framework focuses on enabling resiliency within UAV swarms. Resiliency refers to the swarm's ability to adapt, recover, and maintain functionality in the face of disruptions. The framework integrates features such as agent well-being tracking, collision and obstacle avoidance, energy management, and task control to enhance the swarm's ability to withstand disruptions and continue operating effectively to provide a comprehensive solution for unified swarm management. The modular design allows flexible configuration, upgrades, and the addition of new components. This facilitates easy adaptation to specific swarm requirements and evolving operational needs. Using frameworks like U-SMART, swarm operators can efficiently manage and control UAV swarms, mitigate disruptions, and maintain high situational awareness in challenging environments. Performance is validated for the integrated modules to test feasibility for different experiment scenarios. For each module and feasibility test, thresholds were set to indicate acceptable performance in the presence of disruptions, and results for the swarm running on the proposed framework showed the acceptable performance of agents validated using explicitly designed metrics.