OPTIMIZED EFFECTIVE COVERAGE OF MOBILE ROBOT TEAM WITH REACTIVE NAVIGATION CAPABILITY IN UNCERTAIN ENVIRONMENT

Abstract

This thesis presents the solution for the optimization of effective coverage of a robot team equipped with a practical model of coverage, navigating in an uncertain environment containing dynamic obstacles. It is logically identified in two stages. The first stage aims at analyzing the properties of effective coverage of multi-robot teams, where each robot is equipped with a radial attenuation disk model of coverage. For any point in the mission space, based on the superposition principle, its coverage intensity equals to the sum of individual coverage intensities effectuated at this point by all robots collectively. This superposition principle complies with the collaboration behavior of coverage applications. The second stage provides a reactive algorithm for this team to navigate from its starting point to its destination in uncertain non-convex environments containing dynamic obstacles that move stochastically. It maintains the team's effective coverage maximized in the previous stage through rigidly keeping its optimized formation and avoiding effective coverage overlapping with obstacles.