Distributed Coverage Control for Multiple Unmanned Multirotors with Downward Facing Pan-Tilt-Zoom-Cameras

Multiple Unmanned Multirotors (MUM) systems are becoming a reality. They have a wide range of applications such as for surveillance, search, and rescue, monitoring operations in hazardous environment and providing communications coverage service. Currently, an important issue in MUM is coverage control. In this paper, existing coverage control algorithms have been extended to incorporate a new sensor model, which is downward facing and allows pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ). A new constraint, namely view angle, has also been included. Network coverage among the MUMs is studied. Finally, the proposed scheme is tested in computer simulations.