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Phadke et al. Intell Robot 2023;3:453-78 https://dx.doi.org/10.20517/ir.2023.27 Page 459

Figure 7. An overview of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) swarm applications.

The application scenarios were categorized into three major categories. Each category is then discussed for
its unique implementations and contributions to making a specific parent component more resilient. The
major contributions of this study are as follows.

1. Establishing a categorization system that uniquely classifies UAV swarm applications into one of the
three established divisions, namely, adversarial environment applications, SAR applications, or target study
and surveying.

2. Category 2, i.e., SAR, is a broad domain. This article uniquely recognizes two subcategories. An
application-focused SAR methodology that uses UAV swarms to search for targets, such as victims, after a
disaster, swarm-specific SAR (SS-SAR) methodologies are focused on the UAV swarm agents themselves.
While the former is a use-case scenario of UAV swarms that provides a beneficial service, the latter focuses
on creating robust swarm deployments by taking care of swarm agents during an operation.

3. For each category, current literature is examined, and the resilience component/module that they target is
discussed.

2. CATEGORIZATION OF UAV SWARM RESEARCH
Based on the way UAV swarm usage is targeted, there are three major categories into which an application
can be condensed: Adversarial environment, SAR, and Target study and surveying. Any use case scenario
can be reasonably categorized into one of the application categories. Table 2 organizes swarm applications
into these major categories and their broad description. In the following sections, we approach each
category and examine multiple research approaches that have been indexed under each study for their novel
approach toward resilient UAV swarms.

Table 2. Three major categories for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) swarm applications
Major application category General description of the method of resilient operation
Adversarial environment applications Demonstrate robust network, formation control, and tracking of targets in adversarial environments,
(military, security) avoid hostile network takeover attempts, jamming resistance, and external agent attacks
Search and rescue applications Maximize search area coverage, ad hoc network coverage robustness
Target study, surveying, long-term area Efficient information recording, accurate target detection, long-term energy-efficient operations for
commitment applications mapping, analysis, or DaaS (Drones as a Service) provisions