Aerial refueling scheduling of multi-receiver and multi-tanker under spatial-temporal constraints for forest firefighting  

作　　者：Jing HUANG Jiaqi XING Jinrui REN Quan QUAN Youmin ZHANG 

机构地区：[1]Department of Information and Control Engineering,Xi’an University of Technology,Xi’an 710048,China [2]Jiujiang Measuring Test Technology Research Institute,Jiujiang 332000,China [3]School of Automation Science and Electrical Engineering,Beihang University,Beijing 100191,China [4]School of Automation,Xi’an University of Posts&Telecommunications,Shaanxi,Xi’an 710121,China [5]Department of Mechanical,Industrial and Aerospace Engineering,Concordia University,Montreal H3G 1M8,Canada

出　　处：《Chinese Journal of Aeronautics》2024年第5期71-91,I0001,共22页中国航空学报（英文版）

基　　金：This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.61833013,61473012 and 62103335);Key Research Program of Jiangxi Province in China(No.20192BBEL50005).

摘　　要：Forest fires pose a significant threat to human life and property,so the utilization of unmanned aircraft systems provides new ways for forest firefighting.Given the constrained load capacities of these aircraft,aerial refueling becomes crucial to extend their operational time and range.In order to address the complexities of firefighting missions involving multi-receiver and multi-tanker deployed from various airports,first,a fuel consumption calculation model for aerial refueling scheduling is established based on the receiver path.Then,two distinct methods,including an integrated one and a decomposed one,are designed to address the challenges of establishing refueling airspace and allocating tasks for tankers.Both methods aim to optimize total fuel consumption of the receivers and tankers within the aerial refueling scheduling framework.The optimization problem is established as nonlinear optimization models along with restrictions.The integrated method seamlessly combines refueling rendezvous point scheduling and tanker task allocation into unified process.It has a complete solution space and excels in optimizing total fuel consumption.The decomposed method,through the separation of rendezvous point scheduling and task allocation,achieves a reduced computational complexity.However,this comes at the cost of sacrificing optimality by excluding specific feasible solutions.Finally,numerical simulations are carried out to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed methods.These simulations yield insights crucial for the practical engineering application of both the integrated and decomposed methods in real-world scenarios.This comprehensive approach aims to enhance the efficiency of forest firefighting operations,mitigating the risks posed by forest fires to human life and property.

关 键 词：Aerial refueling SCHEDULING Planning Spatial-temporal constraint FIREFIGHTING 

分 类 号：U116[交通运输工程]