ADVANCED OPTIMIZATION FRAMEWORK FOR AIR-GROUND PERSISTENT SURVEILLANCE USING UNMANNED VEHICLES

An optimization framework for air and ground based persistent surveillance using unmanned vehicles. The objective of the optimization framework is to maximize the coverage of a target area for given UVs, skeleton, and maintenance sites. The optimization framework is based on the generation of mini-cycles, and assigning them in a fractional manner to the given UVs. Subsequently, the optimization framework based on UV-Cross and UV-k-Swap transformations, followed by the cycle of fusion, integerization, and schedule synchronization.