1 January 2025

Intelligent UAV Path Planning for Ergodic Rate Maximization of MIMO Multipath Channels

Vitale, C., Vlachos, E., Kolios, P., Ellinas, G.
IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC)

Abstract

Reliable communication between ground control stations and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is fundamental for safe, autonomous, and coordinated flight operations. This work presents a decentralized model predictive control (MPC) framework that jointly optimizes UAV trajectory planning and high-frequency MIMO communication performance, explicitly accounting for multipath channel effects. The proposed framework incorporates ergodic spectral efficiency, derived from realistic location-dependent channel modeling, into the control cost function, thereby enabling UAV trajectories to dynamically balance three key objectives: (i) minimize travel time to assigned targets, (ii) maintain probabilistic safety through minimum separation constraints under stochastic disturbances, and (iii) maximize the achievable uplink ergodic rate to the ground station. Simulation results confirm the effectiveness of the approach, showing that ergodic rate-aware path planning leads to improved trade-offs between communication quality, safety, and mission efficiency under practical channel conditions.

Type 1
Publication IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC)
Date January 2025

Key Contributions

  • Proposes a decentralized MPC framework that jointly optimizes UAV trajectory planning and high-frequency MIMO communication performance under realistic multipath channel conditions.
  • Integrates ergodic spectral efficiency derived from location-dependent channel models into the control cost function, enabling communication-aware path planning.
  • Balances three competing objectives — mission time, probabilistic collision safety under stochastic disturbances, and uplink ergodic rate — within a unified control framework.