Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

A Distributed Deployment Strategy for Multi-Agent Systems Subject to Health Degradation and Communication Delays

  • Published:
Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper presents a distributed deployment algorithm for a network of autonomous agents. The main goal is to perform a coverage task when the sensor effectiveness of each agent varies during the mission. It is also assumed that the agents are subject to communication delays induced by communication faults. To improve the overall performance and guarantee the collision avoidance, the guaranteed multiplicatively-weighted Voronoi (GMW-Voronoi) diagram is introduced. A distributed coverage control is then provided to drive agents in such a way that the coverage performance function is minimized over the regions assigned to agents. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is evaluated by simulations.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Ahmadzadeh, A., Buchman, G., Cheng, P., Jadbabaie, A., Keller, J., Kumar, V., Pappas, G.: Cooperative control of UAVs for search and coverage. In: Proceedings of the AUVSI Conference on Unmanned Systems (2006)

  2. Akopyan, A.V., Zaslavsky, A.A.: Geometry of Conics. American Mathematical Society (2007)

  3. Beard, R.W., McLain, T.W., Nelson, D.B., Kingston, D., Johanson, D.: Decentralized cooperative aerial surveillance using fixed-wing miniature UAVs. Proc. IEEE 94(7), 1306–1324 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Bethke, B., How, J., Vian, J.: Group health management of UAV teams with applications to persistent surveillance. In: Proceedings of the American Control Conference, pp. 3145–3150. Cancun, Mexico (2008)

  5. Bradley, J.M., Taylor, C.N.: Georeferenced mosaics for tracking fires using unmanned miniature air vehicles. J. Aerosp. Comput. Inf. Commun. 8, 295–309 (2011)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Breitenmoser, A., Schwager, M., Metzger, J.C., Siegwart, R., Rus, D.: Voronoi coverage of non-convex environments with a group of networked robots. In: Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pp. 4982–4989. Anchorage, Alaska, USA (2010)

  7. Bullo, F., Cortés, J., Martinez, S.: Distributed Control of Robotic Networks. Applied Mathematics (2009). Available at http://www.coordinationbook.info. Accessed 15 May 2013

  8. Caicedo-Nunez, Humberto, C., Zefran, M.: A coverage algorithm for a class of non-convex regions. In: Proceedings of the 47th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, pp. 4244–4249. Cancun, Mexico (2008)

  9. Casbeer, D.W., Kingston, D.B., Beard, R.W., McLain, T.W.: Cooperative forest fire surveillance using a team of small unmanned air vehicles. Int. J. Syst. Sci. 37(6), 351–360 (2006)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  10. Cassandras, C.G.: Distributed cooperative coverage control of sensor networks. In: Proceedings of the 44th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, pp. 2542–2547. Seville, Spain (2005)

  11. Cortés, J.: Coverage optimization and spatial load balancing by robotic sensor networks. IEEE Trans. Autom. Control 55(3), 749–754 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Cortes, J., Martinez, S., Karatas, T., Bullo, F.: Coverage control for mobile sensing networks. IEEE Trans. Robot. Autom. 20(2), 243–255 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Dieter, H., Werner, Z., Gunter, S., Peter, S.: Monitoring of gas pipelines—a civil UAV application. Aircr. Eng. Aerosp. Tech. 77(5), 352–360 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Izadi, H.A., Gordon, B.W., Zhang, Y.M.: Decentralized receding horizon control of multiple vehicles subject to communication failure. In: Proceedings of the American Control Conference, pp. 3531–3536. St. Louis, USA (2009)

  15. Kumar, M., Cohen, K., Homchaudhuri, B.: Cooperative control of multiple uninhabited aerial vehicles for monitoring and fighting wildfires. J. Aerosp. Comput. Inf. Commun. 8, 1–16 (2011)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Mahboubi, H., Sharifi, F., Aghdam, A.G., Zhang, Y.M.: Distributed coordination of multi-agent systems for coverage problem in presence of obstacles. In: Proceedings of the American Control Conference, pp. 5252–5257. Montreal, Canada (2012)

  17. Marier, J., Rabbath, C., Léchevin, N.: Optimizing the location of sensors subject to health degradation. In: Proceedings of the 2011 American Control Conference, pp. 3760–3765. San Francisco, USA (2011)

  18. Nowzari, C., Cortés, J.: Self-triggered coordination of robotic networks for optimal deployment. In: Proceedings of the American Control Conference, pp. 1039–1044. San Francisco, USA (2011)

  19. Pimenta, L.C.A., Kumar, V., Mesquita, R.C., Pereira, G.A.S.: Sensing and coverage for a network of heterogeneous robots. In: Proceedings of the 47th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, pp. 3947–3952. Cancun, Mexico (2008)

  20. Pimenta, L.C.A., Schwager, M., Lindsey, Q., Kumar, V., Rus, D., Mesquita, R.C., Pereira, G.A.S.: Simultaneous coverage and tracking (scat) of moving targets with robot networks. In: 8th International Workshop on the Algorithmic Foundations of Robotics (WAFR’08), pp. 85–99 (2008)

  21. Sharifi, F., Zhang, Y.M., Mahboubi, H., Aghdam, A.G.: Coverage control in multi-agent systems subject to communication delays. In: Proceedings of the 2012 IEEE/ASME International Conference on Mechatronics and Embedded Systems and Applications (MESA), pp. 269–274. Suzhou, China (2012)

  22. Susca, S., Martínez, S., Bullo, F.: Monitoring environmental boundaries with a robotic sensor network. IEEE Trans. Control Syst. Technol. 16(2), 288–296 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Wang, G., Cao, G., La Porta, T.: Movement-assisted sensor deployment. IEEE Trans. Mob. Comput. 5(6), 640–652 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W., Montréal, QC, H3G 1M8, Canada

    Farid Sharifi & Youmin Zhang

  2. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W., Montréal, QC, H3G 1M8, Canada

    Amir G. Aghdam

Authors
  1. Farid Sharifi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Youmin Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Amir G. Aghdam
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Youmin Zhang.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Sharifi, F., Zhang, Y. & Aghdam, A.G. A Distributed Deployment Strategy for Multi-Agent Systems Subject to Health Degradation and Communication Delays. J Intell Robot Syst 73, 623–633 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-013-9986-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-013-9986-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation