Navigation of a UAV Network for Optimal Surveillance of a Group of Ground Targets Moving Along a Road

With the rapid increase of vehicles in recent years, traffic surveillance becomes a crucial issue of traffic management. Since the traditional static sensor-based surveillance system can only passively monitor traffic, this paper considers the usage of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which can proactively conduct traffic surveillance thanks to the excellent mobility of UAVs. Specifically, we consider the navigation problem of a network of UAVs to effectively monitor a group of ground targets which move along a curvy road. A surveillance optimization problem is stated, and a distributed navigation algorithm for the UAV network is developed. It is proved that the proposed algorithm is locally optimal. Simulations confirm the effectiveness of the proposed navigation algorithm.