Restricted Airspace Protection using Multi-UAV Spatio-TemporalMulti-Task Allocation

Abstract: This paper addresses the problem of restricted airspace protection from invaders using the cooperative multi-UAV system. The objective is to detect and capture the invaders cooperatively by a team of homogeneous UAVs (called evaders)before invaders enter the restricted airspace. The problem of restricted airspace protection problem is formulated as a Multi-UAV Spatio-Temporal Multi-Task Allocation problem and is referred as MUST-MTA. The MUST-MTA problem is solved using a modified consensus-based bundled auction method. Here, the spatial and time constraints are handled by combining both spatial and temporal loss component. The solution identifies the sequence of spatial locations to be reached by the evader at specific time instants to neutralize the invaders. The performance of MUST-MTA with the consensus approach is evaluated in a simulated environment. The Monte-Carlo simulation results clearly indicate the efficacy of the proposed approach in restricted airspace protection against intruders