UAV Mission Planning with SAR Application

Abstract

The paper presents the concept of mission planning for a short-range tactical class Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) that recognizes targets using the sensors it has been equipped with. Tasks carried out by such systems are mainly associated with aerial reconnaissance employing Electro Optical (EO)/Near Infra-Red (NIR) heads, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), and Electronic Intelligence (ELINT) systems. UAVs of this class are most often used in NATO armies to support artillery actions, etc. The key task, carried out during their activities, is to plan a reconnaissance mission in which the flight route will be determined that optimally uses the sensors’ capabilities. The paper describes the scenario of determining the mission plan and, in particular, the UAV flight routes to which the recognition targets are assigned. The problem was decomposed into several subproblems: assigning reconnaissance tasks to UAVs with choosing the reconnaissance sensors and designating an initial UAV flight plan. The last step is planning a detailed flight route taking into account the time constraints imposed on recognition and the characteristics of the reconnaissance sensors. The final step is to generate the real UAV flight trajectory based on its technical parameters. The algorithm for determining exact flight routes for the indicated reconnaissance purposes was also discussed, taking into account the presence of enemy troops and available air corridors. The task scheduling algorithm—Vehicle Route Planning with Time Window (VRPTW)—using time windows is formulated in the form of the Mixed Integer Linear Problem (MILP). The MILP formulation was used to solve the UAV flight route planning task. The algorithm can be used both when planning individual UAV missions and UAV groups cooperating together. The approach presented is a practical way of establishing mission plans implemented in real unmanned systems.