Features of determining the optimum plan for the use of UAV fleets with the given cruising range for monitoring of nuclear power plant territory objects

Abstract

An algorithm for determining the optimal set of UAV fleets group, performing monitoring of the appointed points within the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (NPP) thirty-kilometre radius zone, for different optimization criteria is proposed. The possibility of the proposed algorithm application to determine the optimal plan of using the UAV group of 6 fleets for monitoring 10 control posts of the automated radiation monitoring system for Zaporizhzhia NPP is shown. Surveillance zones for each of the UAV fleets are formed according to their cruising range. It is shown that the cruising range for each fleet is determined based on the UAV battery life time, the UAV speed, the distance between the starting position and the control post, as well as the monitoring time. Two variants of UAV fleet formation are considered. In the first case, all fleets are complete with DJI MAVIC AIR UAVs. In the second case, the third fleet uses UAVs Parrot Bebop-Pro Thermal. The total number of fleets for the monitoring mission (main criterion) and the total time for monitoring control posts by UAV fleets group are selected as optimization criteria. The successive assignments method is the optimization one. It is shown that for the proposed initial data, the replacement of the Parrot Bebop-Pro Thermal UAVs by DJI MAVIC AIR UAVs in the third fleet allows reducing both the number of fleets for the monitoring mission (from 4 to 2 units) and the total monitoring time by UAVs fleet group (by 33.2 minutes). The results obtained should be used to justify the set of UAV fleets and their placement during their monitoring of the elements of potentially dangerous objects infrastructure.