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| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2023
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.09852 |
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| _version_ | 1866918197154807808 |
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| author | Qin, Chuhao Pournaras, Evangelos |
| author_facet | Qin, Chuhao Pournaras, Evangelos |
| contents | This paper addresses the problem of autonomous task allocation by a swarm of autonomous, interactive drones in large-scale, dynamic spatio-temporal environments. When each drone independently determines navigation, sensing, and recharging options to choose from such that system-wide sensing requirements are met, the collective decision-making becomes an NP-hard decentralized combinatorial optimization problem. Existing solutions face significant limitations: distributed optimization methods such as collective learning often lack long-term adaptability, while centralized deep reinforcement learning (DRL) suffers from high computational complexity, scalability and privacy concerns. To overcome these challenges, we propose a novel hybrid optimization approach that combines long-term DRL with short-term collective learning. In this approach, each drone uses DRL methods to proactively determine high-level strategies, such as flight direction and recharging behavior, while leveraging collective learning to coordinate short-term sensing and navigation tasks with other drones in a decentralized manner. Extensive experiments using datasets derived from realistic urban mobility demonstrate that the proposed solution outperforms standalone state-of-the-art collective learning and DRL approaches by $27.83\%$ and $23.17\%$ respectively. Our findings highlight the complementary strengths of short-term and long-term decision-making, enabling energy-efficient, accurate, and sustainable traffic monitoring through swarms of drones. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2311_09852 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Strategic Coordination of Drones via Short-term Distributed Optimization and Long-term Reinforcement Learning Qin, Chuhao Pournaras, Evangelos Robotics Machine Learning Multiagent Systems This paper addresses the problem of autonomous task allocation by a swarm of autonomous, interactive drones in large-scale, dynamic spatio-temporal environments. When each drone independently determines navigation, sensing, and recharging options to choose from such that system-wide sensing requirements are met, the collective decision-making becomes an NP-hard decentralized combinatorial optimization problem. Existing solutions face significant limitations: distributed optimization methods such as collective learning often lack long-term adaptability, while centralized deep reinforcement learning (DRL) suffers from high computational complexity, scalability and privacy concerns. To overcome these challenges, we propose a novel hybrid optimization approach that combines long-term DRL with short-term collective learning. In this approach, each drone uses DRL methods to proactively determine high-level strategies, such as flight direction and recharging behavior, while leveraging collective learning to coordinate short-term sensing and navigation tasks with other drones in a decentralized manner. Extensive experiments using datasets derived from realistic urban mobility demonstrate that the proposed solution outperforms standalone state-of-the-art collective learning and DRL approaches by $27.83\%$ and $23.17\%$ respectively. Our findings highlight the complementary strengths of short-term and long-term decision-making, enabling energy-efficient, accurate, and sustainable traffic monitoring through swarms of drones. |
| title | Strategic Coordination of Drones via Short-term Distributed Optimization and Long-term Reinforcement Learning |
| topic | Robotics Machine Learning Multiagent Systems |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.09852 |