OCUS: A game-theoretic approach to optimal UAV coalitions in UAV-as-a-Service platforms

Abstract

This paper presents OCUS, an optimal coalition formation scheme designed to enhance the performance of UAV-as-a-Service (UaaS) platforms for Internet of Things (IoT) applications. UaaS platforms typically involve a set of heterogeneous UAVs owned by different entities. Serving IoT applications such as agriculture, traffic monitoring, and surveillance often requires multiple UAVs with diverse sensing, processing, and communication capabilities. Thus, forming an optimal coalition of these UAVs is essential for efficient resource utilization and application performance. Despite the growing interest in UAV-based services, existing literature lacks coalition formation schemes tailored for UaaS platform. To address this gap, OCUS leverages a coalition game-theoretic approach, where each UAV acts as a player in the game. The scheme introduces a selection score, which evaluates UAV owners based on reputation, cost competitiveness, and task allocation fairness. Using a payoff-driven method, OCUS promotes coalition stability and maximizes utility for UaaS platforms. The payoff function considers utility, reputation, task allocation fairness, costs, and equilibrium constraints. By employing Nash Equilibrium (NE) principles, OCUS ensures stable coalitions, discouraging UAVs from switching coalitions for higher payoffs. OCUS optimizes coalition formation by maximizing task completion rates, minimizing energy consumption, and ensuring fair and stable UAV participation through game-theoretic modeling. To evaluate OCUS, simulation experiments were conducted over 100 iterations involving 1 to 25 heterogeneous UAVs across a 50 × 50 unit² area, with varying distances and task counts ($1-15$). Simulation results demonstrate that OCUS achieves 25%–30% more stable coalitions compared to state-of-the-art approaches. Furthermore, NE principles enable OCUS to form coalitions that balance efficiency and fairness, advancing the capabilities of UaaS platforms in diverse IoT scenarios. OCUS offers promising applicability in real-world domains such as urban infrastructure management and emergency response, where adaptive and coordinated UAV operations can significantly enhance the delivery of services.