Optimization of Perimeter Patrol Operations Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

This paper addresseses the following base perimeter patrol problem: a team of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) equipped with cameras and a remotely located operator cooperatively perform the task of perimeter surveillance. There are mm alert stations/sites on the perimeter where a nearby breaching of the perimeter by an intruder is flagged by an unattended ground sensor (UGS). To determine whether an incursion flagged by a UGS is a false alarm or a real threat, a patrolling UAV flies to the alert site to investigate the alert. The longer a UAV dwells (loiters) at an alert site, the more information it gathers; however, this also increases the delay in responding to other alerts. The decision problem for a UAV is to determine the optimal dwell time so as to maximize the expected payoff. In this paper, patrols consisting of one and two UAVs are considered. A stochastic dynamic programming approach is employed to obtain optimal policies for the patrolling UAVs. Theoretical performance bounds from queueing systems literature have been used to benchmark the optimal controller. Also, simulation results for the optimal patrols showing the expected information gained and response time for different alert arrival rates are presented. [PUBLISHER ABSTRACT]