Title
Distributed Coverage Estimation and Control for Multirobot Persistent Tasks.
Abstract
In this paper, we address the problem of persistently covering an environment with a group of mobile robots. In contrast to traditional coverage, in our scenario the coverage level of the environment is always changing. For this reason, the robots have to continually move to maintain a desired coverage level. In this context, our contribution is a complete approach to the problem, including distributed estimation of the coverage and control of the motion of the robots. First, we present an algorithm that allows every robot to estimate the global coverage function only with local information. We pay special attention to the characterization of the algorithm, establishing bounds on the estimation error, and we demonstrate that the algorithm guarantees a perfect estimation in particular areas. Second, we introduce a new function to determine the possible improvement of the coverage at each point of the environment. Upon this metric, we build a motion control strategy that drives the robots to the points of the highest improvement while following the direction of the gradient of the function. Finally, we simulate the proposal to test its correctness and performance.
Year
DOI
Venue
2016
10.1109/TRO.2016.2602383
IEEE Trans. Robotics
Keywords
Field
DocType
Measurement,Distributed processing,Trajectory,Estimation error,Mobile robots
Data mining,Motion control,Computer science,Correctness,Control engineering,Robot,Mobile robot,Trajectory,Distributed computing
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
32
6
1552-3098
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
2
0.35
0
Authors
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
jose manuel palaciosgasos132.06
Eduardo Montijano221422.27
Carlos Sagüés344339.22
Sergio Llorente4699.06