Coordinated Efficient Buoys Data Collection in Large Complex Coastal Environments using UAVs

J. Braga; F. Balampanis; Aguiar, AP; João Tasso Sousa; I. Maza; A. Ollero

Proceedings of the OCEANS 2017 MTS/IEEE Anchorage, 2017 

Abstract: Deploying a large number of sensing buoys is a powerful tool for oceanographic, marine biology and climate change research. In this work we address the problem of efficient data collection by a team of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) from low-power, small buoys with previously unknown locations in complex coastal or remote oceanic regions with aerial restrictions. To tackle this problem we propose and develop a 3-layers architecture that search for the buoys, enables communication with them and creates a UAV communication network to recover the data. Extensive simulations show that the proposed work both optimizes the searching area coverage path planning for complex regions and the quality-of-service for the data transmission from the buoys to the final destination using UAVs as relay nodes.