EURO 2024 Copenhagen
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4224. A Scheduling Algorithm for Drone-Sharing

Invited abstract in session MC-45: Methods and Algorithms of Decision Support, stream Decision Support Systems.

Monday, 12:30-14:00
Room: 30 (building: 324)

Authors (first author is the speaker)

1. Ulrike Ritzinger
Center for Energy, AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH
2. Bin Hu
Mobility, AIT Austrian Institute of Technology
3. Hannes Koller
Center of Energy, AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH
4. Peter Widhalm
Center for Energy, AIT Austrian Institute of Technology

Abstract

Drones are becoming increasingly popular for various tasks in different domains, such as assessing infrastructure damage, conducting surveys, and responding to emergencies. Typically, users of drone services enter individual contracts with a service provider for each order who provides the necessary technical equipment (drones, sensors, pilots, operating license). With the growing number of users, it has become inefficient to perform individual orders independently because their synergies are not considered.

Therefore, a new business model called the drone-sharing economy is emerging. Sharing drones, equipment, pilots, and data among multiple users from a particular region can significantly increase efficiency. This is made possible by holistic and cross-task mission planning with a high degree of automation where the challenge lies in optimizing the schedule of all orders to maximize their synergies while adapting to dynamic conditions such as the weather and new or changing orders.

We propose a scheduling algorithm that employs variable neighborhood search to generate a rolling-horizon schedule for both drones and pilots. Due to the various requirements of the orders such as operational area, time windows, and others, multiple flight plans are generated. The goal is to maximize the number of orders completed by selecting the most fitting flight plan while considering constraints like drone and pilot compatibilities, data quality, and changing weather conditions.

Keywords

Status: accepted

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