DOI: 10.3390/aerospace13100889 ISSN: 2226-4310

Task Allocation for Multi-UAV Multi-Sensor Collaborative Networking Based on Statistical Adaptive Genetic Algorithm

Boxuan Wang, Kun Zhang, Shuangyu Zhao, Jiangbo Cheng, Ke Li, Chen Chen

Multi-UAV multi-sensor cooperative detection is critical for situational awareness in complex environments with stationary known targets. To overcome the shortcomings of existing task allocation models in fine-grained cooperation, stealth constraints, and large-scale optimization, this paper proposes a new offline mission pre-planning method for static target scenarios. A five-layer hierarchical resource scheduling model is established, covering task, UAV platform, sensor type, cooperative mode, and execution role. Stealth requirements are incorporated as hard constraints, and a bi-objective optimization model is formulated to maximize weighted detection efficacy. A statistical adaptive genetic algorithm (SAGA) is developed as an offline pre-planning algorithm, featuring a coupled chromosome encoding strategy that integrates the five decision layers and an adaptive crossover-mutation mechanism guided by the Wilcoxon signed-rank test with effect size monitoring. Simulation results across small, medium, and large scenarios show that the SAGA achieves the highest mean best fitness in all scenarios. Compared with the GA, the improvement is statistically significant in the large-scale scenario, while in small- and medium-scale scenarios the differences from the GA and AGA are not significant. Compared with an improved whale optimization algorithm, the SAGA achieves statistically significantly higher best fitness and shorter computational time in all scenarios and converges significantly faster in small- and medium-scale scenarios. However, the SAGA requires longer computation time than the GA and AGA due to the per-generation statistical test. All allocations strictly satisfy the prescribed stealth constraints in the simulation model. The proposed method provides a novel, quantitatively validated solution for fine-grained, constraint-aware, and computationally efficient multi-UAV multi-sensor cooperative detection mission pre-planning.