Concept of migratory unmanned aerial vehicle system (MiUAV) for automated infrastructure inspection

Inspections of infrastructure facilities using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are expected to improve operational efficiency. However, the costs of pilot training and travel to infrastructures are the problem. This letter proposes a Migratory UAV system (MiUAV) with multiple ports for automated infrastructure inspection. Multiple ports capable of accommodating and recharging UAVs are placed, and the UAVs can travel autonomously to distant destinations by using these ports. A routing algorithm not using edges to ports with high utilization ratio is also proposed. Computer simulations evaluate that the arrival time can be reduced while maintaining the same average number of hops.