Multi-UAV Path Planning for Coastal Area Maritime Wireless Communication Networking Based on Policy Gradient and Squirrel Search Algorithm

With the trend of developing “low altitude economy” nowadays, the solution of using unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) swarm as a complementation to fixed wireless communication base stations (BSs) along the coastline to meet the requirements of communication for maritime activities in coastal area, is promising and has attracted a lot attention. In the process of wireless communication networking, it is important for UAVs to use their flexibility advantage of being movable, approaching the areas with the highest wireless communication demand and providing necessary coverage, thus, it is highly worthy of study the path planning issue of UAVs in UAV swarms used for maritime wireless communication. Till now, although some studies have been conducted on multi-UAV path planning at sea, most of them are not aimed at ensuring wireless communication in coastal area. In this paper, a multi-UAV path planning method for coastal area maritime wireless communication based on policy gradient and squirrel search algorithm has been proposed, which can provide more efficient path planning support for individuals in UAV swarm. Via numerical experiment, the effectiveness of proposed method has been demonstrated.