Phased-Mission Reliability and Importance Measure Analysis for Linear and Circular UAV Swarms

The phased-mission reliability of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) swarm refers to its capability to successfully complete the missions of each phase under specified conditions for a specified period. In order to study the reliability of phased-mission in UAV swarm, this paper firstly studies the reliability of a single UAV under fault coverage. Then, considering the mission characteristics of UAV swarm, the consecutive k-out-of -n system is studied to model and predict the reliability of UAV swarm phase mission. Some importance measures are introduced to analyze the influence of UAV in different positions on the reliability of the whole system. Finally, numerical examples of linear and circular UAV swarms are given to demonstrate and verify the correctness of the model. The reliability modeling established in this paper can predict the phased-mission reliability of UAV swarm scientifically.