Coverage Path Planning Optimization of Heterogeneous UAVs Group for Precision Agriculture

Precision farming is one of the ways of transition to the intensive methods of agricultural production. The case of application of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for solving problems of agriculture and animal husbandry is among the actively studied issues. The UAV is capable of solving the tasks of monitoring, fertilizing, herbicides, etc. However, the effective use of UAV requires to solve the tasks of flight planning, taking into account the heterogeneity of the available attachments and the problem solved in the process of the overflight. This research investigates the problem of flight planning of a group of heterogeneous UAVs applied to solving the issues of coverage, which may arise both in the course of monitoring and in the process of the implementation of agrotechnical measures. The method of coverage path planning of heterogenic UAVs group based on a genetic algorithm is proposed; this method provides planning of flight by a group of UAVs using a moving ground platform on which UAVs are recharged and refueled (multi heterogenic UAVs coverage path planning with moving ground platform (mhCPPmp)). This method allows calculating a fly by to solve the task of covering fields of different shapes and permits selecting the optimal subset of UAVs from the available set of devices; it also provides a 10% reduction in the cost of a flyby compared to an algorithm that does not use heterogeneous UAVs or a moving platform

Review of Some Applications of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Technology in the Resource-Rich Country

The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in various spheres of human activity is a promising direction for countries with very different types of economies. This statement refers to resource-rich economies as well. The peculiarities of such countries are associated with the dependence on resource prices since their economies present low diversification. Therefore, the employment of new technologies is one of the ways of increasing the sustainability of such economy development. In this context, the use of UAVs is a prospect direction, since they are relatively cheap, reliable, and their use does not require a high-tech background. The most common use of UAVs is associated with various types of monitoring tasks. In addition, UAVs can be used for organizing communication, search, cargo delivery, field processing, etc. Using additional elements of artificial intelligence (AI) together with UAVs helps to solve the problems in automatic or semi-automatic mode. Such UAV is named intelligent unmanned aerial vehicle technology (IUAVT), and its employment allows increasing the UAV-based technology efficiency. However, in order to adapt IUAVT in the sectors of economy, it is necessary to overcome a range of limitations. The research is devoted to the analysis of opportunities and obstacles to the adaptation of IUAVT in the economy. The possible economic effect is estimated for Kazakhstan as one of the resource-rich countries. The review consists of three main parts. The first part describes the IUAVT application areas and the tasks it can solve. The following areas of application are considered: precision agriculture, the hazardous geophysical processes monitoring, environmental pollution monitoring, exploration of minerals, wild animals monitoring, technical and engineering structures monitoring, and traffic monitoring. The economic potential is estimated by the areas of application of IUAVT in Kazakhstan. The second part contains the review of the technical, legal, and software-algorithmic limitations of IUAVT and modern approaches aimed at overcoming these limitations. The third part—discussion—comprises the consideration of the impact of these limitations and unsolved tasks of the IUAVT employment in the areas of activity under consideration, and assessment of the overall economic effect