Collaborative UAVs Cloud

Most collaborative UAVs applications are built using traditional technologies that need the dedication of huge development efforts, time, and budget. In this paper, we introduce a new concept, Collaborative UAVs Cloud, to simplify the efforts and reduce the time and cost needed to develop collaborative UAVs applications. This concept utilizes the recent technology of mobile cloud computing for presenting a set of resources in multiple UAVs as a set of mobile cloud services. The cloud services in addition to ground cloud computing services can be used together to enable the development and operations of collaborative UAVs. In the proposed cloud, special collaboration methods are offered as services to reduce the time and cost of development hence they become plug and play components to be used when needed. This proposed cloud offers different opportunities in UAVs applications development and deployment; however, some technical challenges are present and need to be addressed before the actual benefits can be realized at a cost-effective price. Some of these challenges include the UAVs´ energy levels, high mobility, and current locations. This paper proposes a framework for Collaborative UAVs Cloud and presents its opportunities and challenges.