Cloud-assisted sensing and supervision of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles by a single operator

Abstract

Supervisory control for multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) operated by a single operator has been studied [1], The operator decides a plan by which he/she completes a mission such as surveillance and rescue. A supporting system for the operator is needed to select an optimal plan using a large number of data such as sensing data from the UAVs and a map from a cloud. On the other hand, in cloud computing, potentially unlimited computing and database resources can be utilized. In this paper, we apply a cyber-physical system approach to the design of a system for a Cloud-Assisted Sensing and Supervisory control (CLASS) of the multiple UAVs operated by a single operator. The cloud provides a list of plans from which the operator selects an optimal one, a user interface suitable for mission accomplishment, information such as the UAVs' data and a map to the operator, and commands to each UAV for an automatic navigation. Moreover, the cloud retrieves data used to complete the mission from other clouds.