Connectivity in a UAV Multi-static Radar Network

This paper describes a multi-static radar network composed of multiple unmanned air vehicles (UAVs). Time-delay and Doppler measurements taken by the UAV team are passed to a centralized processor to determine optimal heading commands for the UAV team to reduce tracking error. However, due to power and communication constraints on the UAVs, the optimal heading could cause individual UAVs or perhaps the entire network to become disconnected from the base station. In this paper, we ensure that the UAV team remains connected to the base by adding a connectivity constraint to the optimization criterion. This constraint is a modification to the “geometric connectivity robustness” metric proposed recently by Spanos and allows for a balance between the sensor network’s performance and connectivity, while ensuring the appropriate connections for necessary information flow.