Coverage control of multiple robots in cluttered three‐dimensional environments

Abstract

Distributed network systems can be utilized to measure environmental conditions such as temperature, sound, pollution levels, humidity, wind, and so on. Multiple autonomously moving mobile sensors are used to construct distributed sensor networks in an unknown cluttered 3-D workspace. The proposed strategy is to deploy mobile sensors (robots) sequentially and individually to extend the network until the network fully covers the entire open space. This strategy results in 3-D sensor networks without sensing holes and does not require global localization of a robot except for a single robot called the Communication Navigation Aid. The authors believe this article is unique in constructing sensor networks in 3-D workspaces cluttered with many obstacles. Moreover, this article presents an innovative recovery algorithm to handle sensor failures in the constructed network. Network connectivity is maintained while robots move in unknown 3-D cluttered environments. Once a robot is deployed at its designated location, it becomes localized in global coordinate systems. Utilizing MATLAB, the effectiveness of the proposed deployment methods is demonstrated.This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Distributed cohesive configuration controller for a swarm with low‐cost platforms

“…Alonso‐Mora et al (2016) applied a distributed convex‐hull formation that guides robots in an obstacle‐free region. In addition, Olcay et al (2020) and Kim (2021) handled the navigation of robots forming a regular lattice to reach a user‐defined goal location while avoiding an obstacle in the middle of an unknown environment. All the works, however, allowed the use of a shared coordinate with a centralized way, such as a human‐operator, to designate the target location of each robot.…”