MEC based Smart UAV Delivery System

We are using the Smart UAV Delivery System as a major application scenario for our research in edge computing based smart systems. The last-mile delivery problem is a key challenge in logistics which consumes a significant part of the package delivery time and cost as it is heavily rely on human delivery. Smart logistics system tries to use autonomous drones and vehicles for last-mile delivery (https://www.antwork.link/). However, current solutions are mainly cloud based where the cloud datacentre will become a performance bottleneck when there are a large number of UAVs flying in the sky and requesting constant services. Therefore, to meet the future demand, we are investigating the solution of edge computing based Smart UAV Delivery System. Specifically, we are interested in the following topics:

  1. System architecture and the development of the prototype system

  2. Resource management, task scheduling and service migration

  3. Edge intelligence

  4. Security and privacy issues

System Architecture and Prototype:

  • The prototpye system named UAV-EXPRESS is based on the edge computing architecture.

  • We have also proposed a MEC and Blockchain based data and computation management framework.


Resources:

MEC-based Smart UAV Delivery System Architecture

MEC and Blockchain based Data and Computation Management Framework

Resource management, task scheduling and service migration

  • Resource management of heterogenous computing and communication resources across the layers of the edge computing environment

  • Computation offloading and workflow scheduling

  • Efficient and proactive service migration

Papers:

  1. J. Xu, X. Liu, X. Li, L. Zhang, J. Jin, and Y. Yang, Energy-aware Computation Management Strategy for Smart Logistic System with MEC, IEEE Internt of Things Journal, accepted on 16 September 2021. (SCI Q1)

  2. R. Li, X. Li, J. Xu, F. Jiang, Z. Jia, D. Shao, L. Pan, X. Liu ,Energy-Aware Decision-Making for Dynamic Task Migration in MEC based UAV Delivery System, Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience, accepted on 06 November 2020.

  3. L. Chu, X. Li, J. Xu, A. Ghari Neiat and X. Liu, A Holistic Service Provision Strategy for Drone-as-a-Service in MEC-based UAV Delivery, 2021 IEEE International Conference on Web Services (ICWS2021), accepted on 9 July 2021. (CORE A)


Edge Intelligence

  • Running AI applications (e.g. model training and inference) at the edge to support UAV delivery service

  • Fully utilise the computing resources on the end device, the edge server and the cloud server to optimise the Quality of Service such as response time and energy consumption

Papers:

  1. H. Luo, T. Chen, X. Li, S. Li, C. Zhang, G. Zhao, X. Liu, KeepEdge: A Knowledge Distillation Empowered Edge Intelligence Framework for Visual Assisted Positioning in UAV Delivery, IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, accepted on 4 March 2022. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9732222 (CORE A*)

  2. C. Zhang, X. Liu, J. Xu, T. Chen, G. Li, F. Jiang and X. Li, An Edge based Federated Learning Framework for Person Re-identification in UAV Delivery Service, 2021 IEEE International Conference on Web Services (ICWS2021), accepted on 9 July 2021. (CORE A)

  3. H. Gao, Y. Xu, X. Liu, J. Xu, T. Chen, B. Zhou, R. Li, X. Li, Edge4Sys: A Device-Edge Collaborative Framework for MEC based Smart Systems, 35th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (Late Breaking Results Track), accepted on 13 August 2020. (CORE A*) - Distinguished LBR Paper Award


Security and Privacy

  • Authentication of end devices and users in the UAV system

  • Data privacy protection in business process and the use of AI models

Papers:

  1. R. Li, H. Liu, G. Lou, X. Zheng, X. Liu, T. Y. Chen, Metamorphic Testing on Multi-module UAV Systems, 36th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering: Late-Breaking Results Track (ASE2021 LBR track), accepted on 20 August 2021. (CORE A*)

  2. A. Yao, F. Jiang, X. Li, C. Dong, J. Xu, Y. Xu, G. Li, X. Liu, A Novel Security Framework for Edge Computing based UAV Delivery System, 20th IEEE International Conference on Trust, Security and Privacy in Computing and Communications (TrustCom 2021), accepted on 7 June 2021.

  3. C. Dong, F. Jiang, X. Li, A. Yao, G. Li and X. Liu, A Blockchain-aided Self-Sovereign Identity Framework for Edge-based UAV Delivery System, 21st IEEE/ACM international Symposium on Cluster, Cloud and Internet Computing (CCGrid 2021 Poster Track), accepted on 27/02/2021. (CORE A) https://youtu.be/wZR46ZRp3Lo