Purpose

For the crews and assets of the European Union’s (EU’s) Joint Operations available today, but a vast area in the Mediterranean Sea to monitor, detection of small boats and rafts in distress can take up to several days or even fail at all. This study aims to outline how an energy-autonomous swarm of Unmanned Aerial System can help to increase the monitored sea area while minimizing human resource demand.

Design/methodology/approach

A concept for an unattended swarm of solar powered, unmanned hydroplanes is proposed. A swarm operations concept, vehicle conceptual design and an initial vehicle sizing method is derived. A microscopic, multi-agent-based simulation model is developed. System characteristics and surveillance performance is investigated in this delimited environment number of vehicles scale. Parameter variations in insolation, overcast and system design are used to predict system characteristics. The results are finally used for a scale-up study on a macroscopic level.

Findings

Miniaturization of subsystems is found to be essential for energy balance, whereas power consumption of subsystems is identified to define minimum vehicle size. Seasonal variations of solar insolation are observed to dominate the available energy budget. Thus, swarm density and activity adaption to solar energy supply is found to be a key element to maintain continuous aerial surveillance.

Research limitations/implications

This research was conducted extra-occupationally. Resources were limited to the available range of literature, computational power number and time budget.

Practical implications

A proposal for a probable concept of operations, as well as vehicle preliminary design for an unmanned energy-autonomous, multi-vehicle system for maritime surveillance tasks, are presented and discussed. Indications on path planning, communication link and vehicle interaction scheme selection are given. Vehicle design drivers are identified and optimization of parameters with significant impact on the swarm system is shown.

Social implications

The proposed system can help to accelerate the detection of ships in distress, increasing the effectiveness of life-saving rescue missions.

Originality/value

For continuous surveillance of expanded mission theatres by small-sized vehicles of limited endurance, a novel, collaborative swarming approach applying in situ resource utilization is explored.

中文翻译：

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支持地中海海上救援和海上巡逻任务的能源自主无人机群概念

目的

对于今天可用的欧盟（EU）联合行动的船员和资产，但在地中海的广阔区域进行监测，发现遇险的小船和木筏可能需要长达数天的时间，甚至根本无法进行。本研究旨在概述一个能源自主的无人机系统群如何帮助增加受监控的海域，同时最大限度地减少人力资源需求。

设计/方法/方法

提出了一种无人值守的太阳能无人水上飞机群的概念。推导出群体操作概念、车辆概念设计和初始车辆尺寸确定方法。开发了一个微观的、基于多代理的仿真模型。在这个限定的环境数量的车辆规模中研究了系统特性和监视性能。日照、阴天和系统设计中的参数变化用于预测系统特性。结果最终用于宏观层面的放大研究。

发现

发现子系统的小型化对于能量平衡至关重要，而子系统的功耗被确定为定义最小车辆尺寸。观察到太阳日照的季节性变化在可用能量预算中占主导地位。因此，发现群体密度和活动对太阳能供应的适应是维持连续空中监视的关键因素。

研究限制/影响

这项研究是在业余时间进行的。资源仅限于可用的文献范围、计算能力数量和时间预算。

实际影响

提出并讨论了关于可能的操作概念的建议，以及用于海上监视任务的无人能源自主、多车辆系统的车辆初步设计。给出了路径规划、通信链路和车辆交互方案选择的指示。确定了车辆设计驱动因素，并显示了对群系统有重大影响的参数优化。

社会影响

拟议的系统可以帮助加快遇险船只的检测，提高救生救援任务的有效性。

原创性/价值

为了通过续航能力有限的小型车辆对扩大的任务战区进行连续监视，探索了一种应用原位资源利用的新型协作集群方法。