Multi-UAV Trajectory Optimization and Deep Learning-based Imagery Analysis for a UAS-based Inventory Tracking Solution

This paper presents a multi-UAV trajectory optimization and an imagery analysis technique based on Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) for an inventory tracking solution using a UAS platform in a large warehouse or manufacturing environment. The current inventory tracking method is a manual and time-consuming process to scan all the inventory items. Its accuracy is not consistent depending on the complexity of the scanning environment. To improve the scanning efficiency with respect to time and accuracy, this paper discusses a UAS-based inventory solution. In particular, this paper addresses two primary topics: multi-UAV trajectory optimization to scan inventory items and a multi-layer CNN architecture to identify a tag attached on the inventory item. To demonstrate the proposed multi-UAV trajectory optimization framework, numerical simulations are conducted in a representative inventory space. The proposed CNN-based imagery analysis framework is demonstrated on a flight experiment.