Leveraging Connectivity for Coverage in Drone Networks for Target Detection

Target or event detection is one of the main applicationsof drone networks. Several cooperative search algorithmshave been proposed for teams of unmanned aerialvehicles (UAVs), where the goal is to minimize search time ormaximize detection probability. In these works, connectivity oftenis considered a constraint in enabling cooperation. In this paper,we approach the target detection problem in drone networksfrom both detection and connectivity viewpoints. Our goal is notonly to find a stationary target but also to inform the groundpersonnel (e.g., a rescue team) about the status of the target overa multi-hop communication chain. We analyze the performanceof our coverage-based and connectivity-based path planningalgorithms in terms of probability and time of detection as well asnotification. We show that there is a trade-off between coverageand connectivity and with limited number of drones both aspectsneed to be considered for successful mission completion.