{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,29]],"date-time":"2026-05-29T04:04:03Z","timestamp":1780027443354,"version":"3.53.1"},"reference-count":41,"publisher":"Elsevier BV","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,1]],"date-time":"2026-06-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1780272000000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.elsevier.com\/tdm\/userlicense\/1.0\/"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,1]],"date-time":"2026-06-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1780272000000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.elsevier.com\/legal\/tdmrep-license"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,1]],"date-time":"2026-06-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1780272000000},"content-version":"stm-asf","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.15223\/policy-017"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,1]],"date-time":"2026-06-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1780272000000},"content-version":"stm-asf","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.15223\/policy-037"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,1]],"date-time":"2026-06-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1780272000000},"content-version":"stm-asf","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.15223\/policy-012"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,1]],"date-time":"2026-06-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1780272000000},"content-version":"stm-asf","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.15223\/policy-029"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,1]],"date-time":"2026-06-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1780272000000},"content-version":"stm-asf","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.15223\/policy-004"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["elsevier.com","sciencedirect.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Vehicular Communications"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,6]]},"DOI":"10.1016\/j.vehcom.2026.101027","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,2]],"date-time":"2026-04-02T13:16:57Z","timestamp":1775135817000},"page":"101027","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/elsevier_cm_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"special_numbering":"C","title":["Energy-Efficient and load-Balanced task offloading in cooperative multi-UAV-Assisted IoT networks"],"prefix":"10.1016","volume":"59","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0314-1987","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"N.","family":"Thamizharasi","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1011-5461","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sai Krishna","family":"Mothku","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1204-1056","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Rajeswari","family":"Sridhar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"78","reference":[{"issue":"10","key":"10.1016\/j.vehcom.2026.101027_bib0001","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1145\/3657287","article-title":"UAV-Assisted IoT applications, QoS requirements and challenges with future research directions","volume":"56","author":"Adil","year":"2024","journal-title":"ACM Comput. Surv."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.vehcom.2026.101027_bib0002","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1016\/j.comnet.2024.110791","article-title":"Task offloading strategies for mobile edge computing: a survey","author":"Dong","year":"2024","journal-title":"Comput. Netw."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.vehcom.2026.101027_bib0003","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1016\/j.comnet.2023.109603","article-title":"Delay and energy aware task scheduling mechanism for fog-enabled IoT applications: a reinforcement learning approach","volume":"224","author":"Raju","year":"2023","journal-title":"Comput. Netw."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.vehcom.2026.101027_bib0004","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1016\/j.pmcj.2021.101340","article-title":"GEESE: Edge computing enabled by UAVs","volume":"72","author":"Liyanage","year":"2021","journal-title":"Pervasive Mob. Comput."},{"issue":"11","key":"10.1016\/j.vehcom.2026.101027_bib0005","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"17007","DOI":"10.1109\/TITS.2024.3432177","article-title":"DMITS: Dependency and mobility-Aware intelligent task scheduling in socially-Enabled VFC based on federated DRL approach","volume":"25","author":"Raju","year":"2024","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Intell. Transp. Syst."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.vehcom.2026.101027_bib0006","article-title":"Computation offloading optimization for UAV-Based cloud-Edge collaborative task scheduling strategy","author":"Chen","year":"2025","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Cognit. Commun. Netw."},{"issue":"1","key":"10.1016\/j.vehcom.2026.101027_bib0007","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"29","DOI":"10.1109\/TMC.2019.2891736","article-title":"A multi-user mobile computation offloading and transmission scheduling mechanism for delay-sensitive applications","volume":"19","author":"Yi","year":"2019","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Mob. Comput."},{"issue":"1","key":"10.1016\/j.vehcom.2026.101027_bib0008","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"752","DOI":"10.1109\/TVT.2017.2740724","article-title":"Distributed multiuser computation offloading for cloudlet-based mobile cloud computing: a game-theoretic machine learning approach","volume":"67","author":"Cao","year":"2017","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Veh. Technol."},{"issue":"12","key":"10.1016\/j.vehcom.2026.101027_bib0009","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"12262","DOI":"10.1109\/TMC.2024.3406607","article-title":"Dynamic human digital twin deployment at the edge for task execution: a two-timescale accuracy-aware online optimization","volume":"23","author":"Yang","year":"2024","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Mob. Comput."},{"issue":"4","key":"10.1016\/j.vehcom.2026.101027_bib0010","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1348","DOI":"10.1109\/TWC.2008.060909","article-title":"Semi-distributed user relaying algorithm for amplify-and-forward wireless relay networks","volume":"7","author":"Cai","year":"2008","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Wireless Commun."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.vehcom.2026.101027_bib0011","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1109\/TMC.2022.3208457","article-title":"Evolutionary multi-objective reinforcement learning based trajectory control and task offloading in UAV-assisted mobile edge computing","author":"Song","year":"2022","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Mob. Comput."},{"issue":"3","key":"10.1016\/j.vehcom.2026.101027_bib0012","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"601","DOI":"10.1007\/s12524-020-01231-3","article-title":"Deep learning based supervised image classification using UAV images for forest areas classification","volume":"49","author":"Haq","year":"2021","journal-title":"J. Indian Soc. Remote Sens."},{"issue":"2","key":"10.1016\/j.vehcom.2026.101027_bib0013","article-title":"CNN Based automated weed detection system using UAV imagery","volume":"42","author":"Haq","year":"2022","journal-title":"Comput. Syst. Sci. Eng."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.vehcom.2026.101027_bib0014","series-title":"2023 19Th International Conference on Wireless and Mobile Computing, Networking and Communications (WiMob)","first-page":"274","article-title":"Energy-efficient task offloading and trajectory design for UAV-based MEC systems","author":"El-Emary","year":"2023"},{"issue":"2","key":"10.1016\/j.vehcom.2026.101027_bib0015","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"819","DOI":"10.1109\/TSC.2019.2962469","article-title":"RESERVE: An energy-efficient edge cloud architecture for intelligent multi-UAV","volume":"15","author":"Chen","year":"2019","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Serv. Comput."},{"issue":"9","key":"10.1016\/j.vehcom.2026.101027_bib0016","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"8582","DOI":"10.1109\/TMC.2024.3350886","article-title":"Joint task offloading and resource allocation in aerial-terrestrial UAV networks with edge and fog computing for post-disaster rescue","volume":"23","author":"Sun","year":"2024","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Mob. Comput."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.vehcom.2026.101027_bib0017","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jnca.2024.103919","article-title":"A multi-UAV assisted task offloading and path optimization for mobile edge computing via multi-agent deep reinforcement learning","volume":"229","author":"Ju","year":"2024","journal-title":"J. Netw. Comput. Appl."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.vehcom.2026.101027_bib0018","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"519","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ins.2021.05.020","article-title":"STMTO: A smart and trust multi-UAV task offloading system","volume":"573","author":"Guo","year":"2021","journal-title":"Inf. Sci. (Ny)"},{"issue":"8","key":"10.1016\/j.vehcom.2026.101027_bib0019","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"6898","DOI":"10.1109\/JIOT.2020.2971645","article-title":"Multi-UAV-enabled load-balance mobile-edge computing for IoT networks","volume":"7","author":"Yang","year":"2020","journal-title":"IEEE Internet Things J."},{"issue":"9","key":"10.1016\/j.vehcom.2026.101027_bib0020","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"8649","DOI":"10.1109\/TMC.2024.3350078","article-title":"Joint task offloading, resource allocation, and trajectory design for multi-uav cooperative edge computing with task priority","volume":"23","author":"Hao","year":"2024","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Mob. Comput."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.vehcom.2026.101027_bib0021","article-title":"Task offloading and multi-cache placement based on DRL in UAV-assisted MEC networks","author":"Xue","year":"2025","journal-title":"Veh. Commun."},{"issue":"1","key":"10.1016\/j.vehcom.2026.101027_bib0022","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"347","DOI":"10.1109\/TWC.2023.3277801","article-title":"Multi-UAV cooperative task offloading and resource allocation in 5G advanced and beyond","volume":"23","author":"Guo","year":"2023","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Wireless Commun."},{"issue":"2","key":"10.1016\/j.vehcom.2026.101027_bib0023","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1082","DOI":"10.1109\/JIOT.2021.3078904","article-title":"Task offloading optimization for UAV-assisted fog-enabled internet of things networks","volume":"9","author":"Huang","year":"2021","journal-title":"IEEE Internet Things J."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.vehcom.2026.101027_bib0024","article-title":"QoS-Oriented task offloading in NOMA-based multi-UAV cooperative MEC systems","author":"Chen","year":"2025","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Wireless Commun."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.vehcom.2026.101027_bib0025","article-title":"A gated transformer MADDPG algorithm for latency and energy aware task offloading in digital twinning aerial edge computing","author":"Al Sami","year":"2026","journal-title":"Veh. Commun."},{"issue":"2","key":"10.1016\/j.vehcom.2026.101027_bib0026","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1332","DOI":"10.1109\/TCOMM.2021.3129902","article-title":"Multi-hop task offloading with on-the-fly computation for multi-UAV remote edge computing","volume":"70","author":"He","year":"2021","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Commun."},{"issue":"2","key":"10.1016\/j.vehcom.2026.101027_bib0027","first-page":"1034","article-title":"Delay-aware cooperative task offloading for multi-UAV enabled edge-cloud computing","volume":"23","author":"Bai","year":"2022","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Mob. Comput."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.vehcom.2026.101027_bib0028","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1109\/TNSM.2025.3535094","article-title":"UAV-Assisted MEC Architecture for collaborative task offloading in urban IoT environment","author":"Barick","year":"2025","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Netw. Serv. Manage."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.vehcom.2026.101027_bib0029","article-title":"Energy-Efficient offloading decision for beyond-5G multi-Access edge computing-Enabled UAV swarms","author":"Maleki","year":"2025","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Veh. Technol."},{"issue":"12","key":"10.1016\/j.vehcom.2026.101027_bib0030","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"8876","DOI":"10.1109\/TWC.2023.3266497","article-title":"A PDDQNLP algorithm for energy efficient computation offloading in UAV-assisted MEC","volume":"22","author":"Lin","year":"2023","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Wireless Commun."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.vehcom.2026.101027_bib0031","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1109\/TNSE.2024.3476168","article-title":"Joint split offloading and trajectory scheduling for UAV-enabled mobile edge computing in IoT network","author":"Wei","year":"2024","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Network Sci. Eng."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.vehcom.2026.101027_bib0032","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1016\/j.comnet.2024.110615","article-title":"Collaborative computation offloading and wireless charging scheduling in multi-UAV-assisted MEC networks: a TD3-based approach","volume":"251","author":"Zhao","year":"2024","journal-title":"Comput. Netw."},{"issue":"8","key":"10.1016\/j.vehcom.2026.101027_bib0033","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"5337","DOI":"10.1109\/TCOMM.2021.3078786","article-title":"Energy efficient D2D communications using multiple UAV relays","volume":"69","author":"Alsharoa","year":"2021","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Commun."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.vehcom.2026.101027_bib0034","series-title":"2018IEEE Seventh International Conference on Communications and Electronics (ICCE)","first-page":"373","article-title":"Joint resource allocation, computation offloading, and path planning for UAV based hierarchical fog-cloud mobile systems","author":"Ti","year":"2018"},{"issue":"5","key":"10.1016\/j.vehcom.2026.101027_bib0035","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3659","DOI":"10.1109\/TNSE.2022.3188670","article-title":"A load-balanced and energy-efficient navigation scheme for UAV-mounted mobile edge computing","volume":"9","author":"Wang","year":"2022","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Netw. Sci. Eng."},{"issue":"1","key":"10.1016\/j.vehcom.2026.101027_bib0036","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"22","DOI":"10.1016\/S0377-2217(00)00108-9","article-title":"A tabu search heuristic for the generalized assignment problem","volume":"132","author":"D\u0131az","year":"2001","journal-title":"Eur. J. Oper. Res."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.vehcom.2026.101027_bib0037","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"13","DOI":"10.1016\/j.comcom.2024.04.023","article-title":"SMITS: Social and mobility aware intelligent task scheduling in vehicular fog computing-a federated DRL approach","volume":"222","author":"Raju","year":"2024","journal-title":"Comput. Commun."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.vehcom.2026.101027_bib0038","article-title":"A question-centric review on DRL-based optimization for UAV-assisted MEC sensor and IoT applications, challenges, and future directions","author":"Amodu","year":"2025","journal-title":"Veh. Commun."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.vehcom.2026.101027_bib0039","unstructured":"E. Derman, D.J. Mankowitz, T.A. Mann, S. Mannor, Soft-robust actor-critic policy-gradient, (2018) arXiv preprint arXiv: 1803.04848."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.vehcom.2026.101027_bib0040","unstructured":"V. Mnih, K. Kavukcuoglu, D. Silver, A. Graves, I. Antonoglou, D. Wierstra, M. Riedmiller, Playing atari with deep reinforcement learning, (2013) arXiv preprint arXiv: 1312.5602."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.vehcom.2026.101027_bib0041","unstructured":"S.D.-C. Shashua, S. Mannor, Deep robust kalman filter, (2017) arXiv preprint arXiv: 1703.02310."}],"container-title":["Vehicular Communications"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/api.elsevier.com\/content\/article\/PII:S221420962600029X?httpAccept=text\/xml","content-type":"text\/xml","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/api.elsevier.com\/content\/article\/PII:S221420962600029X?httpAccept=text\/plain","content-type":"text\/plain","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,29]],"date-time":"2026-05-29T03:42:31Z","timestamp":1780026151000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/linkinghub.elsevier.com\/retrieve\/pii\/S221420962600029X"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,6]]},"references-count":41,"alternative-id":["S221420962600029X"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.vehcom.2026.101027","relation":{},"ISSN":["2214-2096"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2214-2096","type":"print"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,6]]},"assertion":[{"value":"Elsevier","name":"publisher","label":"This article is maintained by"},{"value":"Energy-Efficient and load-Balanced task offloading in cooperative multi-UAV-Assisted IoT networks","name":"articletitle","label":"Article Title"},{"value":"Vehicular Communications","name":"journaltitle","label":"Journal Title"},{"value":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.vehcom.2026.101027","name":"articlelink","label":"CrossRef DOI link to publisher maintained version"},{"value":"article","name":"content_type","label":"Content Type"},{"value":"\u00a9 2026 Elsevier Inc. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.","name":"copyright","label":"Copyright"}],"article-number":"101027"}}