Title
Systemic design of distributed multi-UAV cooperative decision-making for multi-target tracking.
Abstract
In this paper, we consider the cooperative decision-making problem for multi-target tracking in multi-unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) systems. The multi-UAV decision-making problem is modeled in the framework of distributed multi-agent partially observable Markov decision processes (MPOMDPs). Specifically, the state of the targets is represented by the joint multi-target probability distribution (JMTPD), which is estimated by a distributed information fusion strategy. In the information fusion process, the most accurate estimation is selected to propagate through the whole network in finite time. We propose a max-consensus protocol to guarantee the consistency of the JMTPD. It is proven that the max-consensus can be achieved in the connected communication graph after a limited number of iterations. Based on the consistent JMTPD, the distributed partially observable Markov decision algorithm is used to make tracking decisions. The proposed method uses the Fisher information to bid for targets in a distributed auction. The bid is based upon the reward value of the individual UAV’s POMDPs, thereby removing the need to optimize the global reward in the MPOMDPs. Finally, the cooperative decision-making approach is deployed in a simulation of a multi-target tracking problem. We compare our proposed algorithm with the centralized method and the greedy approach. The simulation results show that the proposed distributed method has a similar performance to the centralized method, and outperforms the greedy approach.
Year
DOI
Venue
2019
10.1007/s10458-019-09401-5
Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems
Keywords
Field
DocType
Multi-UAV, Decision-making, Multi-target tracking, Distributed information fusion, Max-consensus
Mathematical optimization,Observable,Multi target tracking,Computer science,Markov chain,Cooperative decision making,Markov decision process,Probability distribution,Artificial intelligence,Fisher information,Machine learning,Finite time
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
33
1
1387-2532
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
3
0.37
31
Authors
5
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Yunyun Zhao130.37
Xiangke Wang210716.49
chang wang33312.55
Yirui Cong4363.93
Lincheng Shen515132.13