An agent-based approach to multisensor coordination

This paper presents an automated system for multiple sensor placement based on the coordinated decisions of independent, intelligent agents. The problem domain is such that a single sensor system would not provide adequate information for a given sensor task. Hence, it is necessary to incorporate multiple sensors in order to obtain complete information. The overall goal of the system is to provide the surface coverage necessary to perform feature inspection on one or more target objects in a cluttered scene. This is accomplished by a group of cooperating intelligent sensors. In this system, the sensors are mobile, the target objects are stationary and each agent controls the position of a sensor and has the ability to communicate with other agents in the environment. By communicating desires and intentions, each agent develops a mental model of the other agents' preferences, which is used to avoid or resolve conflict situations. In this paper we utilize cameras as the sensors. The experimental results illustrate the feasibility of the autonomous deployment of the sensors and that this deployment can occur with sufficient accuracy as to allow the inspection task to be performed.