Hybrid adaptive control for UAV Data Collection: a simulation-based design to trade-Off resources between Stability and Communication

Abstract

We present the design of a hybrid control system for an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) used for data collection from wireless sensors. We postulate a restrictive scenario where a low-cost processor is in charge of both flying the UAV and resolving data communication. This raises the need for safe trade-off of computing resources between stability and throughput, adapting to unpredictable environment changes. We present a strategy where a supervisory controller implements an adaptive relaxation of the sampling period of the UAV regulation controller to favor communication tasks. To guarantee stability under period switching we update the discrete-time control law with suitable gains. The resulting system comprises continuous, discrete-time and discrete-event dynamics, including event-based adaptation of the discrete-time controller. We show how the DEVS modeling and simulation framework can support a full simulation-based design, verification and validation process, featuring a seamless composition of the underlying hybrid domains.