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PhD Project: Analysis of information spreading in FANET networks

PhD Student: Rayner de Melo Pires

Project title: Analysis of information spreading in FANET networks

Abstract: Unmanned aerial vehicles are increasingly being emphasised on the global aeronautical sector, both in their development and in the different applications of these vehicles due to their higher potential for use in diverse applications, when compared to the potential of conventional manned aircraft. In many applications, a group of UAVs can provide several advantages over one aircraft. However, aggregation can experience problems of wireless communication, which may cause new problems and derail the coordination and the group execution of a mission. In a non-collaborative scenario, UAVs with some level of autonomy and sharing the same airspace should still be able to exchange information, especially safety-information such as positions and flight paths, and they will be also susceptible to some wireless problems. To balance the advantages and disadvantages, these robots will need to make decisions that optimize the network and the communication between them, by applying algorithms that properly balance broadcast avoidance techniques and information dissemination techniques. In order to investigate these scenarios, this PhD research project aims to study and propose new solutions to information exchange between UAVs that communicate with each other using an intermittently connected network yet avoiding the broadcast storm problem, caused by excessive retransmission of duplicated messages in a dense network. To perform the tests, we intend to start with Software-in-the-Loop simulation using the Omnet++ network simulator and the X-Plane flight simulator.

Keywords: Wireless communication; broadcast storm problem; Flying Ad hoc Network (FANET); Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV).

Duration: 2014 - in progress

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