Autonomous Range Extension using Opal in Obstructed Terrains

摘要

The range extension of tactical mobile wireless communications networks is of paramount importance to military forces, especially to improve the survivability of mobile networks. Often these networks must operate in situations where nodes are constrained by command and control and the operating environment. In order to satisfy such complex requirements Defence Science and Technology (DST) Group has developed Opal, an autonomous agent based system designed to control mobile network nodes including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). In this paper we extend Opal to operate in scenarios where an autonomous UAV is not allowed to operate in certain regions due to various constraints. We show through simulation that Opal is effective in minimising network disconnection time in such scenarios.