  UAV networks consisting of reduced size, weight, and power (low SWaP)
fixed-wing UAVs are used for civilian and military applications such as search
and rescue, surveillance, and tracking. To carry out these operations
efficiently, there is a need to develop scalable, decentralized autonomous UAV
network architectures with high network connectivity. However, the area
coverage and the network connectivity requirements exhibit a fundamental
trade-off. In this paper, a connectivity-aware pheromone mobility (CAP) model
is designed for search and rescue operations, which is capable of maintaining
connectivity among UAVs in the network. We use stigmergy-based digital
pheromone maps along with distance-based local connectivity information to
autonomously coordinate the UAV movements, in order to improve its map coverage
efficiency while maintaining high network connectivity.
