Decentralized Navigation with Heterogeneous Federated Reinforcement Learning for UAV-enabled Mobile Edge Computing

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)-enabled mobile edge computing has been proposed as an efficient task-offloading solution for user equipments (UEs). Nevertheless, the presence of heterogeneous UAVs makes centralized navigation policies impractical. Decentralized navigation policies also face significant challenges in knowledge sharing among heterogeneous UAVs. To address this, we present the soft hierarchical deep reinforcement learning network (SHDRLN) and dual-end federated reinforcement learning (DFRL) as a decentralized navigation policy solution. It enhances overall task-offloading energy efficiency for UAVs while facilitating knowledge sharing. Specifically, SHDRLN, a hierarchical DRL network based on maximum entropy learning, reduces policy differences among UAVs by abstracting atomic actions into generic skills. Simultaneously, it maximizes the average efficiency of all UAVs, optimizing coverage for UEs and minimizing task-offloading waiting time. DFRL, a federated learning (FL) algorithm, aggregates policy knowledge at the cloud server and filters it at the UAV end, enabling adaptive learning of navigation policy knowledge suitable for the UAV's performance parameters. Extensive simulations demonstrate that the proposed solution not only outperforms other baseline algorithms in overall energy efficiency but also achieves more stable navigation policy learning under different levels of heterogeneity of different UAV performance parameters.