Design of Ad Hoc Wireless Mesh Networks Formed by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles with Advanced Mechanical Automation

Ad hoc wireless mesh networks formed by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) equipped with wireless transceivers (access points (APs)) are increasingly being touted as being able to provide a flexible "on-the-fly" communications infrastructure that can collect and transmit sensor data from sensors in remote, wilderness, or disaster-hit areas. Recent advances in the mechanical automation of UAVs have resulted in separable APs and replaceable batteries that can be carried by UAVs and placed at arbitrary locations in the field. These advanced mechanized UAV mesh networks pose interesting questions in terms of the design of the network model and the optimal UAV scheduling algorithms. This paper proposes the design of wireless mesh networks that depend on the mechanized automation (AP separation and battery replacement) capabilities of UAVs, which includes mathematical formulations and heuristic UAV scheduling algorithms for each network model. Through performance evaluation, the proposed design is benchmarked against the theoretical lower bound.