(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2019-06)
Barlow, Sarah; Choi, Youngjun; Briceno, Simon; Mavris, Dimitri N.
This paper explores a multi-UAV trajectory optimization methodology for confined environments. One potential application of this technology is performing warehouse inventory audits; this application is used to evaluate the methodology's impact on minimizing total mission times. This paper investigates existing algorithms and improves upon them to better address the constraints of warehouse-like environments. An existing inventory scanning algorithm generates sub-optimal, collision free paths for multi-UAV operations, which has two sequential processes: solving a vehicle routing problem, and determining optimal deployment time without any collision. To improve the sub-optimal results, this paper introduces three possible improvements on the multi-UAV inventory tracking scenario. First, a new algorithm logic which seeks to minimize the total mission time once collision avoidance has been ensured rather than having separate processes. Next, an objective function that seeks to minimize the maximum UAV mission time rather than minimizing the total of all UAV mission times. Last, an operational setup consisting of multiple deployment locations instead of only one. These algorithms are evaluated individually and in combination with one another to assess their impact on the overall mission time using a representative inventory environment. The best combination will be further analyzed through a design of experiments by varying several inputs and examining the resulting fleet size, computation time, and overall mission time.