Modeling and vulnerability analysis of UAV swarm based on two-layer multi-edge complex network

Abstract

Swarm systems of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have emerged as a popular subject of research on the Internet of Things owing to their higher flexibility, efficiency, and reliability than single UAVs. However, little research has been devoted to investigating the vulnerability of UAV swarms, and the traditional network model cannot fully and synchronously characterize their communication-based and mission-based relationships. This study proposes a two-layer multi-edge complex network model to characterize the UAV swarm by considering its status of communication and collaboration for the given mission. The model contains a communication layer and a function layer. In addition, we consider the area of coverage of the UAV swarm, provide the definitions and methods of calculation of three factors influencing its performance, and use them to develop a method to assess its performance for the three typical missions of attack, reconnaissance, and jamming. Furthermore, we propose a framework for the vulnerability analysis of the UAV swarm that can analyze its process of failure and measure its vulnerability. Finally, we use a swarm consisting of 10 UAVs as a case to verify the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed model