Age and Power Minimization via Meta-Deep Reinforcement Learning in AAV Networks

Sankani Sarathchandra, Eslam Eldeeb, Mohammad Shehab, Hirley Alves, Konstantin Mikhaylov, Mohamed-Slim Alouini

Abstract: Age-of-information (AoI) and transmission power are crucial performance metrics in low energy wireless networks, where information freshness is of paramount importance. This study examines a power-limited Internet of Things (IoT) network supported by a flying autonomous aerial vehicle (AAV) that collects data. Our aim is to optimize the AAV's flight trajectory and scheduling policy to minimize a varying AoI and transmission power combination. To tackle this variation, this paper proposes a meta-deep reinforcement learning (RL) approach that integrates deep Q-networks (DQNs) with model-agnostic meta-learning (MAML). DQNs determine optimal AAV decisions, while MAML enables scalability across varying objective functions. Numerical results indicate that the proposed algorithm converges faster and adapts to new objectives more effectively than traditional deep RL methods, achieving minimal AoI and transmission power overall.

External IDs:dblp:journals/tvt/SarathchandraESAMA25