Joint Trajectories and Resource Allocation Design for Multi-UAV-Assisted Wireless Power Transfer with Nonlinear Energy Harvesting

In this work, we explore a multi-UAV-assisted wireless power transfer (WPT) network, where multiple UAVs are deployed to provide WPT services to multiple ground devices (GDs) in order to extend their lifespan. To enhance the WPT efficiency while considering fairness, we investigate the joint traject...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Xinran Wang, Peng Wu, Yulin Hu, Xuan Cai, Qinghua Song, Hu Chen
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2023-05-01
Series:Drones
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2504-446X/7/6/354
Description
Summary:In this work, we explore a multi-UAV-assisted wireless power transfer (WPT) network, where multiple UAVs are deployed to provide WPT services to multiple ground devices (GDs) in order to extend their lifespan. To enhance the WPT efficiency while considering fairness, we investigate the joint trajectories and transmit power design. For fairness-aware consideration, our objective is to maximize the harvested energy of the GD with the worst condition, taking into account UAV mobility, anti-collision, and power budget constraints. Unlike previous works that focus on the simplified linear energy harvesting (EH) model, a more accurate multi-source nonlinear EH model is, for the first time, adopted to formulate the problem. Given the highly non-convex nature of the original problem due to the presence of coupled variables, we leverage the convexity of the multi-source nonlinear EH model and introduce a convex approximation method, which enables us to construct a tightly convex problem in each iteration for the original joint design problem, thereby obtaining a high-quality solution. Finally, we present numerical results to showcase the convergence of our algorithm and validate the performance advantages of the proposed multi-UAV WPT scheme with a nonlinear EH model versus benchmarks.
ISSN:2504-446X