2,572 research outputs found
Distributed approach for coverage and patrolling missions with a team of heterogeneous aerial robots under communication constraints
Using aerial robots in area coverage applications
is an emerging topic. These applications need a coverage
path planning algorithm and a coordinated patrolling
plan. This paper proposes a distributed approach to
coordinate a team of heterogeneous UAVs cooperating
efficiently in patrolling missions around irregular areas,
with low communication ranges and memory storage
requirements. Hence it can be used with small‐scale
UAVs with limited and different capabilities. The
presented system uses a modular architecture and solves
the problem by dividing the area between all the robots
according to their capabilities. Each aerial robot performs
a decomposition based algorithm to create covering paths
and a ’one‐to‐one’ coordination strategy to decide the
path segment to patrol. The system is decentralized and
fault‐tolerant. It ensures a finite time to share
information between all the robots and guarantees
convergence to the desired steady state, based on the
maximal minimum frequency criteria. A set of
simulations with a team of quad‐rotors is used to
validate the approach
An efficient distributed area division method for cooperative monitoring applications with multiple uavs
This article addresses the area division problem in a distributed manner providing a solution for cooperative monitoring missions with multiple UAVs. Starting from a sub-optimal area division, a distributed online algorithm is presented to accelerate the convergence of the system to the optimal solution, following a frequency-based approach. Based on the “coordination variables” concept and on a strict neighborhood relation to share information (left, right, above and below neighbors), this technique defines a distributed division protocol to determine coherently the size and shape of the sub-area assigned to each UAV. Theoretically, the convergence time of the proposed solution depends linearly on the number of UAVs. Validation results, comparing the proposed approach with other distributed techniques, are provided to evaluate and analyze its performance following a convergence time criterion.European Union’s Horizon 2020 AERIAL-CORE Project Grant 871479CDTI (sPAIN) “Red Cervera” Programme iMOV3D Spanish R&D projec
3D multi-robot patrolling with a two-level coordination strategy
Teams of UGVs patrolling harsh and complex 3D environments can experience interference and spatial conflicts with one another. Neglecting the occurrence of these events crucially hinders both soundness and reliability of a patrolling process. This work presents a distributed multi-robot patrolling technique, which uses a two-level coordination strategy to minimize and explicitly manage the occurrence of conflicts and interference. The first level guides the agents to single out exclusive target nodes on a topological map. This target selection relies on a shared idleness representation and a coordination mechanism preventing topological conflicts. The second level hosts coordination strategies based on a metric representation of space and is supported by a 3D SLAM system. Here, each robot path planner negotiates spatial conflicts by applying a multi-robot traversability function. Continuous interactions between these two levels ensure coordination and conflicts resolution. Both simulations and real-world experiments are presented to validate the performances of the proposed patrolling strategy in 3D environments. Results show this is a promising solution for managing spatial conflicts and preventing deadlocks
An Energy-aware, Fault-tolerant, and Robust Deep Reinforcement Learning based approach for Multi-agent Patrolling Problems
Autonomous vehicles are suited for continuous area patrolling problems.
However, finding an optimal patrolling strategy can be challenging for many
reasons. Firstly, patrolling environments are often complex and can include
unknown environmental factors. Secondly, autonomous vehicles can have failures
or hardware constraints, such as limited battery life. Importantly, patrolling
large areas often requires multiple agents that need to collectively coordinate
their actions. In this work, we consider these limitations and propose an
approach based on model-free, deep multi-agent reinforcement learning. In this
approach, the agents are trained to automatically recharge themselves when
required, to support continuous collective patrolling. A distributed
homogeneous multi-agent architecture is proposed, where all patrolling agents
execute identical policies locally based on their local observations and shared
information. This architecture provides a fault-tolerant and robust patrolling
system that can tolerate agent failures and allow supplementary agents to be
added to replace failed agents or to increase the overall patrol performance.
The solution is validated through simulation experiments from multiple
perspectives, including the overall patrol performance, the efficiency of
battery recharging strategies, and the overall fault tolerance and robustness
Second-Order Agents on Ring Digraphs
The paper addresses the problem of consensus seeking among second-order
linear agents interconnected in a specific ring topology. Unlike the existing
results in the field dealing with one-directional digraphs arising in various
cyclic pursuit algorithms or two-directional graphs, we focus on the case where
some arcs in a two-directional ring graph are dropped in a regular fashion. The
derived condition for achieving consensus turns out to be independent of the
number of agents in a network.Comment: 6 pages, 10 figure
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