An Efficient Position Reconfiguration Approach for Maximizing Lifetime of Fixed-wing Swarm Drones

With the development and application of swarm drones, some researchers have tried to replicating the migration patterns of geese in drones swarm formation to extend their lifetime. However, the problem of performing appropriate position reconfiguration based on the battery energy still remains an unsolved issue. This paper proposes an efficient position reconfiguration approach that reduces the energy consumption imbalance of the swarm and prolongs the lifetime. The approach includes: (1) a two-step MIP (mixed-integer programming)-based optimization method. (2) a two-step heuristic algorithm that can run in pseudo-polynomial time and without the need for an optimization solver. The approach provides a complete position reconfiguration solution that determines (i) the number of position reconfiguration; (ii) which drones need to exchange positions in every position reconfiguration; (iii) the length of time to maintain each position before next reconfiguration. Finally, the approach is compared with other three methods in experiments which demonstrate the effectiveness of it.