Combining Collision Avoidance and Operator Workload Reduction with Cooperative Task Assignment and Path Planning

This paper develops a method of assignment and path allocation that incorporates a priori collision avoidance and operator workload reduction in assigning multiple tasks to cooperative unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). The problem is posed as a combinatorial optimization problem. A branch and bound tree search algorithm is implemented for a satisficing solution using a cost function that integrates distance travelled, proximity to other UAVs, and target visitation times. The results demonstrate that the assigned path is near optimal with respect to distance travelled, significantly increases the expected proximity distance to other UAVs, and significantly increases the difference between visitation times of targets. The algorithm runs in less than a tenth of a second allowing on the fly replanning.