Optimal Spraying Control of a Diffusion Process Using Mobile Actuator Networks with Fractional Potential Field Based Dynamic Obstacle Avoidance

The path planning problem for a group of networked mobile robots which can release neutralizing chemicals, known as "mobile actuator networks", is considered. With a group of static networked mesh sensors network, the "mobile actuator networks" aim to neutralize a toxic 2D diffusion process modelled as a distributed parameter system (DPS) governed by a partial differential equation (PDE) of parabolic type. The problem of optimally planning motion trajectories of the mobile actuators (robots) is solved by Centroidal Voronoi Tessellations (CVT). In addition, the fractional potential field method is used for the mobile robots to avoid dynamic obstacles in its working space. Simulation results show the effectiveness of our proposed method.