DNCS: New UAV navigation with considering the no-fly zone and efficient selection of the charging station

Due to Drones' limited battery capacity, quick battery-charging machines (QCMs) are required to ensure long-distance flying. A QCM is chosen for a drone using the shortest path algorithm considering the waiting time at a QCM, charging time, End-to-End (E2E) flight time and other similar time and distance-based criteria for the drone services. However, these methods lack reckoning the varying costs of charging by multiple service providers. Furthermore, such algorithms commonly do not consider the avoidance of no-drone cross-over zones. It is supposed that drone navigation and charging stations (DNCS) are to clearly identify drone trajectories, so both the overall traveled distance and drones charging costs are minimized simultaneously (without crossing over the no-drone zones). The results of simulation reveal the proposed algorithm's remarkable cost-effectiveness and its avoidance from the risk of crossing over no-fly zone compared to the current planning methods accounting for only the shortest-path- based drone trajectory. (C) 2021 THE AUTHORS. Published by Elsevier BV on behalf of Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University.