Receding horizon control for persistent monitoring tasks with monitoring count requirements

Abstract

This article presents a reachability‐based receding horizon control (RHC) method for addressing persistent monitoring problems with count requirements. An agent is assigned to monitor multiple targets in a given environment to minimize the average uncertainty metric of all targets, while ensuring the monitoring count requirements of specific targets within predetermined time windows. To account for the spatial and temporal constraints in the monitoring requirements, a persistence predicate within the signal temporal logic (STL) specifications is introduced, which incorporates cumulative target state signals to effectively describe the monitoring count constraints. Considering the complexities arising from global time domain information requirements in STL constraints validation, an STL formula segmentation method based on completion progress is proposed. Subsequently, a reachability‐based controller for the agent is developed by solving a short‐term RHC problem while ensuring the satisfaction of the STL formulae. Simulation results are provided to illustrate the performance of proposed method.