Reconfigurable Multi-UAV Formation Using Angle-Encoded PSO
This addresses the challenge of automated UAV-based inspection for infrastructure maintenance, though it appears incremental as it builds on existing PSO methods with specific adaptations.
The paper tackled the problem of planning and reconfiguring multi-UAV formations for vision-based infrastructure inspection, using a theta-PSO algorithm to generate safe paths and avoid obstacles, with experimental validation on a light rail bridge confirming its effectiveness.
In this paper, we propose an algorithm for the formation of multiple UAVs used in vision-based inspection of infrastructure. A path planning algorithm is first developed by using a variant of the particle swarm optimisation, named theta-PSO, to generate a feasible path for the overall formation configuration taken into account the constraints for visual inspection. Here, we introduced a cost function that includes various constraints on flight safety and visual inspection. A reconfigurable topology is then added based on the use of intermediate waypoints to allow the formation to avoid collision with obstacles during operation. The planned path and formation are then combined to derive the trajectory and velocity profiles for each UAV. Experiments have been conducted for the task of inspecting a light rail bridge. The results confirmed the validity and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.