{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,1]],"date-time":"2026-04-01T07:18:30Z","timestamp":1775027910121,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":27,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2018,8,2]],"date-time":"2018-08-02T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1533168000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100003725","name":"National Research Foundation of Korea","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["2017R1D1A1B03029895"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2017R1D1A1B03029895"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100003725","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Finding a target quickly is one of the most important tasks in drone operations. In particular, rapid target detection is a critical issue for tasks such as finding rescue victims during the golden period, environmental monitoring, locating military facilities, and monitoring natural disasters. Therefore, in this study, an improved hierarchical probabilistic target search algorithm based on the collaboration of drones at different altitudes is proposed. This is a method for reducing the search time and search distance by improving the information transfer methods between high-altitude and low-altitude drones. Specifically, to improve the speed of target detection, a high-altitude drone first performs a search of a wide area. Then, when the probability of existence of the target is higher than a certain threshold, the search information is transmitted to a low-altitude drone which then performs a more detailed search in the identified area. This method takes full advantage of fast searching capabilities at high altitudes. In other words, it reduces the total time and travel distance required for searching by quickly searching a wide search area. Several drone collaboration scenarios that can be performed by two drones at different altitudes are described and compared to the proposed algorithm. Through simulations, the performances of the proposed algorithm and the cooperation scenarios are analyzed. It is demonstrated that methods utilizing hierarchical searches with drones are comparatively excellent and that the proposed algorithm is approximately 13% more effective than a previous method and much better compared to other scenarios.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s18082535","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2018,8,3]],"date-time":"2018-08-03T03:03:15Z","timestamp":1533265395000},"page":"2535","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":22,"title":["A Probabilistic Target Search Algorithm Based on Hierarchical Collaboration for Improving Rapidity of Drones"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"18","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1620-5516","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Il-Kyu","family":"Ha","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Engineering, Kyungil University, Gyeongsan 38428, Korea"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"You-Ze","family":"Cho","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Electronics Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41566, Korea"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2018,8,2]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1254","DOI":"10.1016\/j.adhoc.2012.12.004","article-title":"Flying ad-hoc Networks (FANETs): A survey","volume":"11","author":"Bekmezci","year":"2013","journal-title":"Ad Hoc Netw."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"513","DOI":"10.1007\/s10846-013-9959-7","article-title":"Networking models in flying ad-hoc networks (FANETs): Concepts and Challenges","volume":"74","author":"Sahingoz","year":"2014","journal-title":"J. Intell. Robot. Syst."},{"key":"ref_3","first-page":"78","article-title":"Analysis of importance of search altitude control for rapid target detection of drones","volume":"16","author":"Ha","year":"2018","journal-title":"J. Inf. Commun. Converg. Eng."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Chung, T.H., and Burdick, J.W. (2007, January 10\u201314). A decision-making framework for control strategies in probabilistic search. Proceedings of the 2007 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2007), Roma, Italy.","DOI":"10.1109\/ROBOT.2007.364155"},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Liu, Y., and Dai, Q. (2010, January 10\u201312). A survey of computer vision applied in aerial robotic vehicles. Proceedings of the 2010 International Conference on Optics, Photonics and Energy Engineering (OPEE 2010), Wuhan, China.","DOI":"10.1109\/OPEE.2010.5508131"},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.5772\/58989","article-title":"Vision-based detection and tracking of a mobile ground target using a fixed-wing UAV","volume":"11","author":"Wang","year":"2014","journal-title":"Int. J. Adv. Robot. Syst."},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Mejias, L., Mcnamara, S., Lai, J., and Ford, J. (2010, January 18\u201322). Vision-based detection and tracking of aerial targets for UAV collision avoidance. Proceedings of the 2010 IEEE\/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2010), Taibei, Taiwan.","DOI":"10.1109\/IROS.2010.5651028"},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1005","DOI":"10.1109\/TSMC.2015.2491878","article-title":"Vision-based target detection and localization via a team of cooperative UAV and UGVs","volume":"46","author":"Minaeian","year":"2016","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Syst. Man Cybern. Syst."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"605","DOI":"10.1016\/j.comnet.2004.06.007","article-title":"A line in the sand: A wireless sensor network for target detection, classification, and tracking","volume":"46","author":"Arora","year":"2004","journal-title":"Comput. Netw."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Costa, F.G., Ueyama, J., Braun, T., Pessin, G., Osorio, F.S., and Vargas, P.A. (2012, January 22\u201327). The use of unmanned aerial vehicles and wireless sensor network in agricultural applications. Proceedings of the 2012 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS 2012), Munich, Germany.","DOI":"10.1109\/IGARSS.2012.6352477"},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Jawhar, I., Mohamed, N., Al-Jaroodi, J., and Zhang, S. (2013, January 28\u201331). Data communication in linear wireless sensor networks using unmanned aerial vehicles. Proceedings of the 2013 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS 2013), Atlanta, GA, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICUAS.2013.6564725"},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"132","DOI":"10.1109\/TRO.2011.2170333","article-title":"Analysis of search decision making using probabilistic search strategies","volume":"28","author":"Chung","year":"2012","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Robot."},{"key":"ref_13","unstructured":"Washburn, A.R. (2002). Search and Detection (Topics in Operations Research Series), Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences. [4th ed.]."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"113","DOI":"10.1023\/A:1016639210559","article-title":"Coverage for robotics\u2014A survey of recent results","volume":"31","author":"Choset","year":"2001","journal-title":"Ann. Math. Artif. Intell."},{"key":"ref_15","unstructured":"Robie, A.A. (2010). Multimodal Sensory Control of Exploration by Walking Drosophila Melanogaster. [Ph.D. Thesis, California Institute of Technology]."},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1489","DOI":"10.1016\/S0042-6989(99)00163-7","article-title":"A saliency-based search mechanism for overt and covert shifts of visual attention","volume":"40","author":"Itti","year":"2000","journal-title":"Vis. Res."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Waharte, S., and Trigoni, N. (2010, January 6\u20137). Supporting search and rescue operations with UAVs. Proceedings of the 2010 International Conference on Emerging Security Technologies (EST 2010), Canterbury, UK.","DOI":"10.1109\/EST.2010.31"},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Symington, A., Waharte, S., Julier, S., and Trigoni, N. (2010, January 3\u20138). Probabilistic target detection by camera-equipped UAVs. Proceedings of the 2010 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2010), Anchorage, AK, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/ROBOT.2010.5509355"},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Morse, B.S., Engh, C.H., and Goodrich, M.A. (2010, January 2\u20135). UAV video coverage quality maps and prioritized indexing for wilderness search and rescue. Proceedings of the 5th ACM\/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI 2010), Osaka, Japan.","DOI":"10.1109\/HRI.2010.5453190"},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Waharte, S., Symington, A., and Trigoni, N. (2010, January 3\u20138). Probabilistic search with agile UAVs. Proceedings of the 2010 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2010), Anchorage, AK, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/ROBOT.2010.5509962"},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"89","DOI":"10.1016\/j.eja.2014.01.004","article-title":"Tree height quantification using very high resolution imagery acquired from an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and automatic 3D photo-reconstruction methods","volume":"55","author":"Angileria","year":"2014","journal-title":"Eur. J. Agron."},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"426","DOI":"10.1109\/LGRS.2010.2079913","article-title":"Mini-UAV-borne LIDAR for fine-scale mapping","volume":"8","author":"Lin","year":"2011","journal-title":"IEEE Geosci. Remote Sens. Lett."},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Waharte, S., Trigoni, N., and Julier, S.J. (2009, January 22\u201326). Coordinated search with a swarm of UAVs. Proceedings of the 6th Annual IEEE Communications Society Conference on Sensor, Mesh and Ad Hoc Communications and Networks Workshops (SECON 2009), Rome, Italy.","DOI":"10.1109\/SAHCNW.2009.5172925"},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"408","DOI":"10.1109\/TPAMI.2013.218","article-title":"Gaussian processes for data-efficient learning in robotics and control","volume":"37","author":"Deisenroth","year":"2015","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell."},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"66","DOI":"10.1109\/MSP.2013.2297715","article-title":"Static and dynamic source separation using nonnegative factorizations: A unified view","volume":"31","author":"Smaragdis","year":"2014","journal-title":"IEEE Signal Process. Mag."},{"key":"ref_26","unstructured":"Schneider, N., and Gavrila, D.M. (2013, January 3\u20136). Pedestrian path prediction with recursive Bayesian filters: A comparative study. Proceedings of the 35th German Conference on Pattern Recognition (GCPR 2013), Saarbr\u00fccken, Germany."},{"key":"ref_27","first-page":"453","article-title":"A POMDP framework for dynamic task allocation and reconnaissance of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles","volume":"39","author":"Kim","year":"2012","journal-title":"J. KIISE Softw. Appl."}],"container-title":["Sensors"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/18\/8\/2535\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T15:16:16Z","timestamp":1760195776000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/18\/8\/2535"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2018,8,2]]},"references-count":27,"journal-issue":{"issue":"8","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2018,8]]}},"alternative-id":["s18082535"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/s18082535","relation":{},"ISSN":["1424-8220"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1424-8220","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2018,8,2]]}}}