Strategic Planning and Deployment of Aerial Assets

The rapid deployment of fleets of small, uncrewed aircraft (drones) for tasks like package delivery or search-and-rescue in the immediate aftermath of a natural disaster are some of the most vital and common applications of advanced air mobility. Recognizing that successful drone missions depend on pre-established, well-positioned bases and efficient task allocation, this work presents a generalizable model for base positioning and routing in diverse applications. The proposed model prioritizes choosing bases that both maximize operational coverage and enable rapid responses to high-demand areas. Additionally, the framework integrates a vehicle routing component to optimize drone flight paths for efficient task completion in the tactical portion of drone-based operations; this component is the primary focus of this work. In addition to the theoretical formulation, the models are validated through case studies examining post-flooding search-and-rescue in the Iwate prefecture of Japan and package deliveries in the Austin, TX metropolitan area.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Saravanan, Akila

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Balakrishnan, Hamsa

Statement dc:rights

• Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
• Copyright retained by author(s)

Licence dc:rights.uri

• https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/155367

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/155367