# Meta Reinforcement Learning for Strategic IoT Deployments Coverage in Disaster-Response UAV Swarms

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.11118 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.11118/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in RL for robot navigation and UAV control, one of 15 directions in Deep reinforcement learning methods.
- Builds on 6 of its 13 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 20 Jan 2024.

## Placed in

- Deep reinforcement learning methods / [RL for robot navigation and UAV control](https://mlsanity.com/deeprl/rl-for-robot-navigation-and-uav-control/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 6 of 6)

- [Model-Agnostic Meta-Learning for Fast Adaptation of Deep Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.03400/) (2017)
- [A Comprehensive Overview on 5G-and-Beyond Networks with UAVs: From Communications to Sensing and Intelligence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.09317/) (2020)
- [Trajectory Design and Power Control for Multi-UAV Assisted Wireless Networks: A Machine Learning Approach](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.07665/) (2018)
- [Towards Big data processing in IoT: Path Planning and Resource Management of UAV Base Stations in Mobile-Edge Computing System](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.05023/) (2019)
- [Deep Reinforcement Learning for Trajectory Path Planning and Distributed Inference in Resource-Constrained UAV Swarms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.11201/) (2022)
- [LLHR: Low Latency and High Reliability CNN Distributed Inference for Resource-Constrained UAV Swarms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.15858/) (2023)

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [Decentralized Consensus Inference-based Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning for Multi-Constrained UAV Pursuit-Evasion Game](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.18126/) (2025)
- [Multi-UAV Multi-RIS QoS-Aware Aerial Communication Systems using DRL and PSO](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.16934/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

In the past decade, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have grabbed the attention of researchers in academia and industry for their potential use in critical emergency applications, such as providing wireless services to ground users and collecting data from areas affected by disasters, due to their advantages in terms of maneuverability and movement flexibility. The UAVs' limited resources, energy budget, and strict mission completion time have posed challenges in adopting UAVs for these applications. Our system model considers a UAV swarm that navigates an area collecting data from ground IoT devices focusing on providing better service for strategic locations and allowing UAVs to join and leave the swarm (e.g., for recharging) in a dynamic way. In this work, we introduce an optimization model with the aim of minimizing the total energy consumption and provide the optimal path planning of UAVs under the constraints of minimum completion time and transmit power. The formulated optimization is NP-hard making it not applicable for real-time decision making. Therefore, we introduce a light-weight meta-reinforcement learning solution that can also cope with sudden changes in the environment through fast convergence. We conduct extensive simulations and compare our approach to three state-of-the-art learning models. Our simulation results prove that our introduced approach is better than the three state-of-the-art algorithms in providing coverage to strategic locations with fast convergence.