Multiple UAV-LiDAR Placement Optimization Under Road Priority and Resolution Requirements

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) integrated with the remote sensing technology of light detection and ranging (LiDAR) can provide accurate and real-time road traffic information. In this paper, we propose to equip UAVs with LiDAR sensors for Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) applications. The goal is to find the optimal 3D placement of multiple UAV-LiDAR (ULiDs) for a given road segmentation. We formulate an optimization problem to find the optimal placement such that the road coverage efficiency is maximized. The optimization problem is constrained by notable ULiD specifications such as field-of-view (FoV), point-cloud density, geographic information system (GIS) location, and road segment coverage priorities. We propose to use a computational intelligent algorithm based on particle swarm optimization to solve the problem. Finally, we illustrate the benefits of using our proposed algorithm over other baselines.