Systematic Review of Multi-Objective UAV Swarm Mission Planning Systems from Regulatory Perspective

Advancements in Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technologies have increased exponentially in recent years, with UAV swarm being a key area of interest. UAV swarm overcomes the energy reserve, payload, and single-objective limitations of single UAVs, enabling broader mission scopes. Despite these advantages, UAV swarm has yet to see widespread application within global industry. A leading factor hindering swarm application within industry is the divide that currently exists between the functional capacity of modern UAV swarm systems and the functionality required by legislation. This paper investigates this divide through an overview of global legislative practice, contextualized via a case study of Australia’s UAV regulatory environment. The overview highlighted legislative objectives that coincided with open challenges in the UAV swarm literature. These objectives were then formulated into analysis criteria that assessed whether systems presented sufficient functionality to address legislative concern. A systematic review methodology was used to apply analysis criteria to multi-objective UAV swarm mission planning systems. Analysis focused on multi-objective mission planning systems due to their role in defining the functional capacity of UAV swarms within complex real-world operational environments. This, alongside the popularity of these systems within the modern literature, makes them ideal candidates for defining new enabling technologies that could address the identified areas of weakness. The results of this review highlighted several legislative considerations that remain under-addressed by existing technologies. These findings guided the proposal of enabling technologies to bridge the divide between functional capacity and legislative concern.