2026· Computers, Materials & Continua· 0 citations· 37 references
Abstract
: The emergence of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)-enabled Wireless Energy Transfer (WET) and Simultaneous Wireless Information and Power Transfer (SWIPT) technology provide a promising solution to overcome the energy sustainability limitations of traditional harvesting-reliant sensor networks. However, in large-scale Battery-free SWIPT-enabled Sensor Networks (BSSN) characterized by sparse node distribution and heterogeneous energy consumption and harvesting rates, employing a single UAV for energy replenishment often suffers from insufficient operation continuity and low charging efficiency. To overcome these challenges, a Multi-UAV Collaborative Energy Charging for BSSN Based on Multi-Agent Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (MCEC-MADDPG) is proposed in this paper. Specifically, we construct a collaborative one-to-one precision energy supply model where UAVs hover directly above specific nodes to achieve power transmission without complex beamforming requirements. To achieve collaborative scheduling among multiple UAVs in wide-area dynamic environments, the energy replenishment problem is first formulated as a Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (POMDP). Subsequently, the Centralized Training with Decentralized Execution (CTDE) architecture of the MADDPG algorithm is leveraged to solve this POMDP, which effectively tackles the non-stationarity challenge inherent in multi-agent environments. Simulation results demonstrate that MCEC-MADDPG exhibits superior performance in terms of convergence speed and stability. It enables the adaptive emergence of spatial-division collaborative strategies, significantly enhances the average residual energy of the network, and elevates the node survival rate to nearly 90%. Compared with Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (DDPG), the traditional static Partition-Greedy method, the heuristic K-Means algorithm and the dynamic Two-Layer task allocation strategy, the proposed approach demonstrates substantial advantages.
Driven by the vision of a thriving low-altitude economy and aiming to provide on-demand services for diverse entities, this paper investigates an integrated sensing and communication (ISAC)-enabled low-altitude wireless network (LAWN). Benefiting from flexible mobility and cost-effective cooperative deployment, multiple ISAC-enabled uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) are emerging as an ISAC paradigm for on-demand deployment in LAWN. However, due to the complex inter-UAV interference and resource coupling in LAWN, it is difficult to properly coordinate different constrained resources, including spatial deployment, energy, and wireless channels, to simultaneously meet the sensing and communication requirements. To address these challenges, this paper formulates a sensing–communication optimization (SCO) problem in LAWN by jointly optimizing subcarrier allocation, transmit power allocation, and three-dimensional (3D) UAV deployments to maximize network utility while satisfying quality of service (QoS) requirements for multiple users and target sensing mutual information (MI) requirements. To enable efficient solutions, we propose a hierarchical optimization approach that vertically decouples the SCO problem into two subproblems: a top level employing a Gibbs Sampling–based multi-UAV 3D deployment algorithm for efficient exploration and deployment optimization, and a bottom level performing resource allocation via a dual-based joint power and subcarrier allocation algorithm. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed approach achieves a favorable trade-off between communication and sensing and significantly enhances the overall performance and adaptability of the LAWN.
Cheng Ma, Zewei Jing, Qinghai Yang et al.· IEEE Transactions on Wireles...· 0 citations
This paper addresses the self-sustainable operation of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) swarms in dense urban 6G networks, where both communication reliability and energy replenishment are strongly affected by building-induced blockage. Although solar harvesting and laser wireless power transfer (WPT) can extend UAV operation, they are tightly coupled with UAV mobility: a communication-favorable position may not be feasible for laser charging, while a charging-oriented position may degrade ground node (GN) service. To capture this coupling, we develop a blockage-aware self-sustaining UAV swarm framework that integrates communication, solar harvesting, safety-compliant laser WPT, and UAV mobility under urban blockage. In the proposed model, buildings serve as common geometric constraints that determine both UAV–GN line-of-sight (LoS) connectivity and laser charging feasibility. We formulate a joint optimization problem of user association, UAV trajectory, laser charging decisions, and battery states to maximize the minimum spectral efficiency among GNs while ensuring sustainable energy operation. To address the resulting nonconvex mixed-integer nonlinear problem, we develop a tailored convexification framework for the coupled communication–charging–mobility design. Simulation results reveal that UAVs adapt their mobility according to solar availability: they prioritize short-range LoS communication when solar energy is sufficient, while moving toward safety-compliant and blockage-free laser charging regions under limited solar harvesting. These results highlight the need for joint mobility control that balances communication service and energy replenishment under building-induced blockage.
The integration of low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellites with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) promises high-throughput and flexible wireless connectivity, yet it faces critical challenges in simultaneously guaranteeing data rates and long-term energy harvesting under mobility and imperfect channel state information (CSI). Additionally, the rate–energy trade-off imposed by simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) further complicates per-slot resource allocation. In this paper, we propose a Lyapunov-based scheduling framework that stabilizes UAV data and virtual energy queues while maximizing weighted throughput. The framework employs a custom inner solver combining successive convex approximation (SCA) and weighted minimum mean-square error (WMMSE) optimization to efficiently compute per-slot beamformers and power-splitting ratios. Our approach explicitly accounts for UAV mobility, Rician fading channels with Doppler, and circuit nonlinearities in energy harvesting, ensuring feasible and energy-aware SWIPT operation. A LEO satellite–UAV integrated communication system is considered, where multiple satellites provide wireless connectivity to energy-constrained UAVs operating in a dynamic three-dimensional environment. The satellites employ multi-antenna transmission, while the UAVs rely on energy harvesting mechanisms to sustain their operation. The communication links are characterized by dominant line-of-sight propagation conditions, and UAV trajectories are adaptively optimized to improve network performance and energy efficiency. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed Lyapunov-based SCA-WMMSE framework significantly outperforms a fixed baseline approach, providing substantial improvements in signal quality, achievable data rates, and harvested energy. Moreover, the proposed method maintains stable energy management behavior and guarantees long-term energy sustainability for the UAVs.
E. Spyrou, V. Kappatos, C. Angelis et al.· Telecom· 0 citations
A multi-agent deep reinforcement learning (MADRL) methodology based on the Multi-Agent Proximal Policy Optimization (MAPPO) approach, which simultaneously achieves high field coverage completeness, robust communication energy efficiency, and a high depot-return rate under hard battery constraints without any inter-UAV communication overhead at execution time.
The results confirm that the integration of artificial intelligence, energy-aware routing, and UAV trajectory optimization provides an effective and scalable solution for next-generation UAV-assisted IoT systems and establishes a robust foundation for intelligent 6G-enabled wireless sensor networks.
Mojtaba Nasehi· Internet of Things and Cloud...· 0 citations