Autonomous Communication Relay Position Planning Based on Predictive Model

When operating in complex mountainous areas, the mission UAV must fly at low altitudes to execute a certain mission. The mission UAVloses wireless communication with the ground station due to the occlusion of the mountains along the way. To this end, this paper proposes a multi-UAV autonomous communication relay position planning method based on the predictive model. The relay UAV is therefore introduced that must always maintain communication transmission between the mission UAV and the ground station. The method includes the establishment of a visibility model, the lightweight characterization of terrain, and the description of the predictive model optimization problem. Simulation results show that the method can autonomously plan the relay UAV position that satisfies the relay function according to the trajectory of the mission UAV in complex mountainous areas.