Effective coverage control for teams of heterogeneous agents
Giovanni Franzini, Mario Innocenti · 2017
In this paper we propose a cooperative control law for effective coverage problems designed for coordinating a team of heterogeneous agents that is demanded to explore a given domain until a prescribed level of coverage is reached. Agents heterogeneity is considered both in terms of different sensing capabilities and dynamics. Sensing heterogeneity is addressed by means of the descriptor function framework, a set of mathematical tools for modeling and coordination of heterogeneous agents. Based on this abstraction, a cooperative control law for agents with driftless control affine dynamics is derived, that includes a collision avoidance strategy to prevent inter-agent collisions. Possible decentralization strategies are also discussed. Formal theoretical results and a numerical simulation show the effectiveness of the control law.