Stochastic Geometry-based Trajectory Design for Multi-Purpose UAVs: Package and Data Delivery

Yujie Qin, Mustafa A. Kishk, Mohamed Slim Alouini

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

With the advancements achieved in drones' flexibility, low cost, and high efficiency, they obtain huge application opportunities in various industries, such as aerial delivery and future communication networks. However, the increasing transportation needs and expansion of network capacity demands for UAVs will cause aerial traffic conflicts in the future. To address this issue, in this paper, we explore the idea of multi-purpose UAVs, which act as aerial wireless communication data relays and means of aerial transportation simultaneously to deliver data and packages at the same time. While UAVs deliver the packages from warehouses to residential areas, we design their trajectories which enable them to collect data from multiple Internet of Things (IoT) clusters and forward the collected data to terrestrial base stations (TBSs). To select the serving nearby IoT clusters, UAVs rank them based on their priorities and distances. From the perspectives of data and package delivery, respectively, we propose two algorithms that design the optimal UAVs trajectory to maximize the transmitted data or minimize the round trip time. Specifically, we use tools from stochastic geometry to model the locations of IoT clusters and TBSs. Given the nature of random locations, the proposed algorithm applies to general cases. Our numerical results show that multi-purpose UAVs are practical and have great potential to enhance the energy/time-efficiency of future networks.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1-16
Number of pages16
JournalIEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology
Volume73
Issue number3
DOIs
StateAccepted/In press - 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
IEEE

Keywords

  • Autonomous aerial vehicles
  • Batteries
  • data collection
  • Drones
  • Geometry
  • Internet of Things
  • IoT devices
  • multi-purpose UAVs
  • package delivery
  • Poisson Point Process
  • Product delivery
  • Stochastic geometry
  • Trajectory
  • trajectory planning

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Automotive Engineering
  • Aerospace Engineering
  • Computer Networks and Communications
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Stochastic Geometry-based Trajectory Design for Multi-Purpose UAVs: Package and Data Delivery'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this