Utility Based Scheduling for Multi-UAV Search Systems in Disaster-Hit Areas

Using micro or small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is a promising solution for search and rescue of missing persons who have disappeared during emergencies, such as natural disasters. In actual situations, the processing time of image data should be considered due to the wide variety of computing resources provided by UAVs. In addition, network connectivity and transmission speed could be unstable since communication infrastructure may have been damaged in disaster-hit areas. Thus, both the processing time of the acquired data and the data transfer time are critical in search and rescue missions. Unlike the solutions proposed in the past, we propose a scheduling method of multi-UAV search systems that takes into account both the processing time of image data and the data transfer time. We present a utility-based problem formulation that ensures continuously updating information while obtaining as many pieces of information as possible for a certain period. The simulation results indicate that the proposed scheduling method maximizes user utility and performs better than a conventional scheduling method in terms of user-centric evaluation metrics.