There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality.

Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

I and i

Beginning with Emlen (1966) and MacArthur and Pianka (1966) and extending through the last ten years, several authors have sought to predict the foraging behavior of animals by means of mathematical models. These models are very similar,in that they all assume that the fitness of a foraging animal is a function of the efficiency of foraging measured in terms of some "currency" (Schoener, 1971) -usually energy- and that natural selection has resulted in animals that forage so as to maximize this fitness. As a result of these similarities, the models have become known as "optimal foraging models"; and the theory that embodies them, "optimal foraging theory." The situations to which optimal foraging theory has been applied, with the exception of a few recent studies, can be divided into the following four categories: (1) choice by an animal of which food types to eat (i.e., optimal diet); (2) choice of which patch type to feed in (i.e., optimal patch choice); (3) optimal allocation of time to different patches; and (4) optimal patterns and speed of movements. In this review we discuss each of these categories separately, dealing with both the theoretical developments and the data that permit tests of the predictions. The review is selective in the sense that we emphasize studies that either develop testable predictions or that attempt to test predictions in a precise quantitative manner. We also discuss what we see to be some of the future developments in the area of optimal foraging theory and how this theory can be related to other areas of biology. Our general conclusion is that the simple models so far formulated are supported are supported reasonably well by available data and that we are optimistic about the value both now and in the future of optimal foraging theory. We argue, however, that these simple models will requre much modification, espicially to deal with situations that either cannot easily be put into one or another of the above four categories or entail currencies more complicated that just energy.

Citation classic - optimal foraging - a selective review of theory and tests

This paper presents control and coordination algorithms for groups of vehicles. The focus is on autonomous vehicle networks performing distributed sensing tasks where each vehicle plays the role of a mobile tunable sensor. The paper proposes gradient descent algorithms for a class of utility functions which encode optimal coverage and sensing policies. The resulting closed-loop behavior is adaptive, distributed, asynchronous, and verifiably correct.

Coverage control for mobile sensing networks

System Identification I

応用水文 = Applied hydrology

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are mainly used by military and government organizations, but with low-cost sensors, electronics, and airframes there is significant interest in using low-cost UAVs among aircraft hobbyists, academic researchers, and industries. Applications such as mapping, search and rescue, patrol, and surveillance require the UAV to autonomously follow a predefined path at a prescribed height. The most commonly used paths are straight lines and circular orbits. Path-following algorithms ensure that the UAV will follow a predefined path in three or two dimensions at constant height. A basic requirement for these path-following algorithms is that they must be accurate and robust to wind disturbances.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Path Following: A Survey and Analysis of Algorithms for Fixed-Wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicless

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have the potential to carry resources in support of search and prosecute operations. Often to completely prosecute a target, UAVs may have to simultaneously attack the target with various resources with different capacities. However, the UAVs are capable of carrying only limited resources in small quantities, hence, a group of UAVs (coalition) needs to be assigned that satisfies the target resource requirement. The assigned coalition must be such that it minimizes the target prosecution delay and the size of the coalition. The problem of forming coalitions is computationally intensive due to the combinatorial nature of the problem, but for real-time applications computationally cheap solutions are required. In this paper, we propose decentralized sub-optimal (polynomial time) and decentralized optimal coalition formation algorithms that generate coalitions for a single target with low computational complexity. We compare the performance of the proposed algorithms to that of a global optimal solution for which we need to solve a centralized combinatorial optimization problem. This problem is computationally intensive because the solution has to (a) provide a coalition for each target, (b) design a sequence in which targets need to be prosecuted, and (c) take into account reduction of UAV resources with usage. To solve this problem we use the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) technique. Through simulations, we study the performance of the proposed algorithms in terms of mission performance, complexity of the algorithms and the time taken to form the coalition. The simulation results show that the solution provided by the proposed algorithms is close to the global optimal solution and requires far less computational resources.

Multiple UAV Coalitions for a Search and Prosecute Mission

We consider a large scale system consisting of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) performing a search and surveillance task, based on the uncertainty map of an unknown region. The search algorithm is based on the k-shortest path algorithm that maximizes the effectiveness of the search in term of searching through the maximum uncertainty region, given a constraint on the endurance time of the UAV and on the location of the base station from which the UAVs operate. These constraints set apart this class of problems from the usual search and surveillance problems. We compare the performance of this algorithm with a random search and a greedy strategy search, We also implement the algorithm for the case of multiple UAVs searching an unknown region. The cases of delayed and partial information are also considered. Simulation results that demonstrate the efficacy of the technique are also presented.

/pdf/search-using-multiple-uavs-with-flight-time-constraints-471zygu9qn.pdf

Search using multiple UAVs with flight time constraints

Landing an aerial vehicle is a very challenging problem. Pilots spend numerous hours practicing touchdowns because of the risk involved during landing phase. Developing autonomous landing technologies have been an active area of research over the past decade. This paper presents a review of landing techniques ranging from GPS based landing to vision based landing techniques; from basic nonlinear to intelligent, hybrid and robust control. It is aimed at providing a broad perspective on the status of the landing control problem and controller design. The paper provides a comparison based on parameters such as type of the vehicle, assumptions made in the problem design, techniques used and efficacy of the algorithm in real world conditions.

A survey of autonomous landing techniques for UAVs

Multiple UAVs are deployed to carry out a search and destroy mission in a bounded region. The UAVs have limited sensor range and can carry limited resources which reduce with use. The UAVs perform a search task to detect targets. When a target is detected which requires different type and quantities of resources to completely destroy, then a team of UAVs called as a coalition is formed to attack the target. The coalition members have to modify their route to attack the target, in the process, the search task is affected, as search and destroy tasks are coupled. The performance of the mission is a function of the search and the task allocation strategies. Therefore, for a given task allocation strategy, we need to devise search strategies that are efficient. In this paper, we propose three different search strategies namely; random search strategy, lanes based search strategy and grid based search strategy and analyze their performance through Monte-Carlo simulations. The results show that the grid based search strategy performs the best but with high information overhead.

P. B. Sujit

Papers

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Path Following: A Survey and Analysis of Algorithms for Fixed-Wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicless

Multiple UAV Coalitions for a Search and Prosecute Mission

Search using multiple UAVs with flight time constraints

A survey of autonomous landing techniques for UAVs

Search Strategies for Multiple UAV Search and Destroy Missions