Hybrid Partition-Based Patrolling Scheme for Maritime Area Patrol with Multiple Cooperative Unmanned Surface Vehicles

Abstract

Multi-robot cooperative patrolling systems have been extensively employed in the civilian and military fields, including monitoring forest fires, marine search-and-rescue, and area patrol. Multi-robot area patrol problems refer to the activity that a team of robots works cooperatively and regularly to visit the key targets in the given area for security. Following consideration of the low cost and high safety of unmanned surface vehicles (USV), a team of USVs is organized to perform area patrol in a sophisticated maritime environment. In this paper, we establish a mathematical model considering the characteristics of the cooperative patrol task and the limited conditions of USVs. A hybrid partition-based patrolling scheme is proposed for a multi-USV system to visit targets with different importance levels in a maritime area. Firstly, a centralized area partition algorithm is utilized to partition the patrolling area according to the number of USVs. Secondly, a distributed path planning algorithm is applied to planning the patrolling path for each USV to visit the targets in a maritime environment to minimize the length of the patrolling path for the USV team. Finally, comparative experiments between the proposed scheme and other methods are carried out to validate the performance of the hybrid partition-based patrolling scheme. Simulation results and experimental analysis show the efficiency of the proposed hybrid partition-based patrolling scheme compared to several previous patrolling algorithms.

Comparison of Linear and Nonlinear Model Predictive Control in Path Following of Underactuated Unmanned Surface Vehicles

“…(2) For the circular path, the reference state is specified as X R = [4 sin(0.02t), 4(1 − cos(0.02t)), 0.02t, 0.78, 0, 0.2] T . (3) For the oblique turning path, the reference state for the straight-line segment remains the same as (1). The reference state for the oblique path segment is defined as X R = [4 + 0.1t, 4 + 0.1t, π/4, 1.414, 0, 0] T .…”

“…Unmanned surface vehicles (USVs), recognized for their efficiency and suitability for water surface tasks, find extensive application in practical scenarios such as water research and environmental monitoring [1]. This popularity is attributed to their cost-effectiveness and safety features [2], with guidance, navigation, and control constituting the three pivotal components.…”

Path planning and search effectiveness of USV based on underwater target scattering model

“…In this paper, based on the fact that USVs need to visit targets with different importance levels (visit frequency) when performing maritime patrol search missions, the objective functions in the traditional algorithm [13] are improved, and the expressions are shown below:…”

Testing and Analysis of Selected Navigation Parameters of the GNSS/INS System for USV Path Localization during Inland Hydrographic Surveys

“…Their use is constantly expanding in many areas, and the development of autonomous systems technology enables more and more advanced functions and applications. USVs can be used for a variety of purposes such as archaeological research involving the discovery and examination of sunken ships or plane wrecks [ 13 , 14 ]; biological research enabling the observation of the behaviour of marine animals in their natural environment [ 15 ]; oceanographic research to record data on salinity, sea currents, temperature, topography of the sea and ocean floor [ 16 , 17 ]; monitoring the marine environment by measuring water quality, pollution and vegetation levels, as well as the state of marine ecosystems [ 18 , 19 ]; ocean resource exploration such as gas, mines and oil, as well as offshore pipeline/platform construction and maintenance [ 20 , 21 ]; search and rescue of missing people on waterbodies [ 22 , 23 ]; military applications for defence and security purposes such as monitoring coastal areas; protection of offshore installations; or reconnaissance in hard-to-reach places [ 24 , 25 ].…”