Smart Solutions Towards Cellular-Connected Unmanned Aerial Vehicles System (AUTONOMY)

5G及以上蜂窝网络承诺无人机在三维(3D)复杂且高度灵活的多无人机行为下，具有超可靠的低延迟控制、无处不在的覆盖和无缝的群体连接，这将释放无人机的全部潜力。这种所谓的蜂窝连接UAVs(C-UAVs)系统创建了与传统地面网络相比完全不同且快速发展的联网和控制环境：1)由于其主导的视线(LOS)特性，UAV地面BS/用户信道享有较少的信道变化，这对上行链路/下行链路中共存的BS/用户施加严重的空地干扰。2)在主要为主导下行链路业务(例如，视频)而设计的现有蜂窝网络中操作，在上行链路有效载荷上载中具有高数据速率要求的UAV，3)保持以任务为中心、具有3D高机动性的无人机群的无缝连接是无人机协作的关键，但也具有极大的挑战性。4)在连通性约束下控制一群无人机在有限的人工监督下完成复杂的任务具有重要意义，但也是一个挑战，传统的模型驱动方法很难解决这些挑战，这些方法仅限于离线或半离线的一次瞬时性能评估或优化，依赖于给定的不存在时间相关性的理想概率信道模型。与此同时，5G及以上的未来蜂窝网络将走向具有前所未有的数据可用性的开放、可编程和虚拟架构。这两个事实都要求我们对C-UAVs系统的建模、设计、控制和优化的方式进行根本性的改变，从反应/事件驱动的解耦联网和控制操作转向主动/数据驱动的联合网络和控制设计。该项目具有雄心勃勃的愿景，开发具有完全网络自动化和条件控制自动化的人工智能(AI)驱动的C-UAVs系统，允许在最少人工监督的情况下实时联合设计和优化网络操作和无人机控制，并在长期服务质量(Qos)保证下完成任务的目标。该项目将与最终用户合作，利用C-UAVs在城市地区的监视和紧急服务中的应用。我们在网络自动化和控制自动化方面的成果将直接惠及国际电信制造商(例如爱立信AB、东芝欧洲公司、AccelerComm)和更广泛的无人机行业(例如机载机器人公司、泰利斯公司、诺斯罗普·格鲁曼公司)，并产生可预见的工业影响。NGMN和CommNet将促进研究成果在国内和国际上的传播。我们建议的解决方案的开发、实施和测试为我们的研究成果商业化提供了一个平台，使英国走在了“联网飞行器”革命的前沿。

The 5G-and-Beyond cellular networks promise UAVs with ultra-reliable low-latency control, ubiquitous coverage, and seamless swarm connectivity under complex and highly flexible multi-UAV behaviours in three-dimension (3D), which will unlock the full potential of UAVs. This so-called cellular-connected UAVs (C-UAVs) system creates a radically different and rapidly evolving networking and control environment compared to conventional terrestrial networks:1) The UAV-ground BS/user channels enjoy fewer channel variations due to their dominant line-of-sight (LOS) characteristics, which imposes severe air-ground interference to the coexisting BSs/users in the uplink/downlink.2) Operating in existing cellular networks designed mainly for dominate downlink traffic (e.g., video), the UAVs with high data rate requirement in uplink payload uploading, and ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC) requirement in downlink command and control communication can hardly be satisfied.3) Maintaining seamless connectivity for mission-centric UAV swarms with 3D high mobility is essential for UAV cooperation but extremely challenging. 4) Controlling a swarm of UAVs to accomplish complex tasks with limited human supervision under the connectivity constraints is of capital importance but challenging.The above challenges can hardly be solved via conventional model-driven approaches, which are limited to performance evaluation or optimisation at one time instant in an offline or semi-offline manner, relying on given ideal probabilistic channel models without time correlation. Meanwhile, the future cellular networks in 5G-and-Beyond moves towards an open, programmable, and virtualised architecture with unprecedented data availability. Both facts mandate a fundamental change in the way we model, design, control, and optimise the C-UAVs system, from reactive/incident driven decoupled networking and control operation to proactive/ data-driven joint network and control design.This project has the ambitious vision to develop artificial intelligence (AI)-powered C-UAVs system with full network automation and conditional control automation, that allow for joint design and optimization of the network operation and the UAVs control in real-time with minimum human supervision and the target of mission completion under the long-term quality of service (QoS) guarantees. The project will engage with the end-users to exploit the C-UAVs applications in surveillance and emergency services in urban areas. Our results on network automation and control automation will directly benefit the telecom manufacturers (e.g., Ericsson AB, Toshiba Europe, AccelerComm), and broader UAV industries (e.g., Airborne Robotics, Thales, Northrop Grumman) internationally with foreseeable industrial impact. The NGMN and CommNet will facilitate the dissemination of the research outcomes nationally and internationally. The development, implementation, and testing of our proposed solutions serve as a platform towards the commercialisation of our research outcomes, putting the UK at the forefront of the "connected aerial vehicles" revolution.