3D dynamic coverage and avoidance control in power-constrained UAV surveillance networks

This paper considers dynamic coverage control of multiple power-constrained UAVs. The UAVs are deployed to patrol a domain until the entire space has reached a satisfactory level of coverage. This is achieved through the gathering of visual information by a forward-facing camera, modeled as an anisotropic spherical sector. Coverage and collision avoidance guarantees are met through the design of a high-level kinematic hybrid control scheme consisting of a hold state as well as three coverage modes: local, global and scan mode. Energy-aware methods are encoded into the global coverage state to shift the bulk of spatial redistribution onto less constrained agents. The efficacy of this algorithm is presented through simulation.