A Heterogeneous Dual-Network Framework for Emergency Delivery UAVs: Communication Assurance and Path Planning Coordination

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Huang, Ping, Duo, Bin, Godfred, Ziedor, Huo, Liuwei, Ning, Jin, Yuan, Xiaojun, Li, Jun
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2026
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author Huang, Ping
Duo, Bin
Godfred, Ziedor
Huo, Liuwei
Ning, Jin
Yuan, Xiaojun
Li, Jun
author_facet Huang, Ping
Duo, Bin
Godfred, Ziedor
Huo, Liuwei
Ning, Jin
Yuan, Xiaojun
Li, Jun
contents Natural disasters often damage ground infrastructure, making unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) essential for emergency supply delivery. Yet safe operation in complex post-disaster environments requires reliable command-and-control (C2) links; link instability can cause loss of control, delay rescue, and trigger severe secondary harm. To provide continuous three-dimensional (3D) C2 coverage during dynamic missions, we propose a Heterogeneous Dual-Network Framework (HDNF) for safe and reliable emergency delivery. HDNF tightly couples an Emergency Communication Support Network (ECSN), formed by hovering UAV base stations, with a Delivery Path Network (DPN), formed by fast-moving delivery UAVs. The ECSN dynamically safeguards mission-critical flight corridors, while the DPN aligns trajectories with reliable coverage regions. We formulate a joint optimization problem over task assignment, 3D UAV-BS deployment, and DPN path planning to maximize end-to-end C2 reliability while minimizing UAV flight energy consumption and base-station deployment cost. To solve this computationally intractable NP-hard problem, we develop a layered strategy with three components: (i) a multi-layer C2 service model that overcomes 2D-metric limitations and aligns UAV-BS deployment with mission-critical 3D phases; (ii) a 3D coverage-aware multi-agent reinforcement learning algorithm that addresses the high-dimensional search space and improves both training efficiency and topology resilience; and (iii) a 3D communication-aware A* planner that jointly optimizes C2 quality and flight energy, mitigating trajectory--coverage mismatch and improving routing safety. Extensive simulations show that HDNF markedly improves C2 reliability, eliminates outages in critical phases, and sustains high task success rates while reducing hardware deployment cost.
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id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_12501
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Heterogeneous Dual-Network Framework for Emergency Delivery UAVs: Communication Assurance and Path Planning Coordination
Huang, Ping
Duo, Bin
Godfred, Ziedor
Huo, Liuwei
Ning, Jin
Yuan, Xiaojun
Li, Jun
Information Theory
Natural disasters often damage ground infrastructure, making unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) essential for emergency supply delivery. Yet safe operation in complex post-disaster environments requires reliable command-and-control (C2) links; link instability can cause loss of control, delay rescue, and trigger severe secondary harm. To provide continuous three-dimensional (3D) C2 coverage during dynamic missions, we propose a Heterogeneous Dual-Network Framework (HDNF) for safe and reliable emergency delivery. HDNF tightly couples an Emergency Communication Support Network (ECSN), formed by hovering UAV base stations, with a Delivery Path Network (DPN), formed by fast-moving delivery UAVs. The ECSN dynamically safeguards mission-critical flight corridors, while the DPN aligns trajectories with reliable coverage regions. We formulate a joint optimization problem over task assignment, 3D UAV-BS deployment, and DPN path planning to maximize end-to-end C2 reliability while minimizing UAV flight energy consumption and base-station deployment cost. To solve this computationally intractable NP-hard problem, we develop a layered strategy with three components: (i) a multi-layer C2 service model that overcomes 2D-metric limitations and aligns UAV-BS deployment with mission-critical 3D phases; (ii) a 3D coverage-aware multi-agent reinforcement learning algorithm that addresses the high-dimensional search space and improves both training efficiency and topology resilience; and (iii) a 3D communication-aware A* planner that jointly optimizes C2 quality and flight energy, mitigating trajectory--coverage mismatch and improving routing safety. Extensive simulations show that HDNF markedly improves C2 reliability, eliminates outages in critical phases, and sustains high task success rates while reducing hardware deployment cost.
title A Heterogeneous Dual-Network Framework for Emergency Delivery UAVs: Communication Assurance and Path Planning Coordination
topic Information Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.12501