Reliability of Cloud Controlled Multi-UAV Systems for On-Demand Services

© 2017 IEEE. Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology has been widely applied in both military and civilian applications. With the increasing complexity of application scenarios, the coordination of multiple UAVs has become a hot topic. However, the limited capability of UAVs make it hard to achieve stable and reliable control. Considering this practical problem, we propose a cloud-based UAV system. It extricates the computing and data storage from UAVs and utilizes the cloud to process the sensor data and to maintain the stable operation of multi-UAV systems. Firstly, we analyze the cloud-based system's on-demand service ability and its impact on UAVs' control procedure. Secondly, we propose a UAV cloud control system (CCS) which serves as a network control system. Moreover, the stable condition of the UAV cloud control system is derived. It reveals the relationship between the acquisition rate of sensor data and the stability of the cloud-based UAV system. Finally, simulations are conducted to verify the effectiveness of previous theoretical analysis