A Hybrid Strategy for Target Search Using Static and Mobile Sensors

Locating a mobile target, untrackable in real-time, is pertinent to numerous time-critical applications, such as wilderness search and rescue. This paper proposes a hybrid approach to this dynamic problem, where both static and mobile sensors are utilized for the goal of detecting a target. The approach is novel in that a team of robots utilized to deploy a staticsensor network also actively searches for the target via on-board sensors. Synergy is achieved through: 1) optimal deployment planning of static-sensor networks and 2) optimal routing and motion planning of the robots for the deployment of the network and target search. The static-sensor network is planned first to maximize the likelihood of target detection while ensuring (temporal and spatial) unbiasedness in target motion. Robot motions are, subsequently, planned in two stages: 1) route planning and 2) trajectory planning. In the first stage, given a static-sensor network configuration, robot routes are planned to maximize the amount of spare time available to the mobile agents/sensors, for target search in between (just-in-time) static-sensor deployments. In the second stage, given robot routes (i.e., optimal sequences of sensor delivery locations and times), the corresponding robot trajectories are planned to make effective use of any spare time the mobile agents may have to search for the target. The proposed search strategy was validated through extensive simulations, some of which are given in detail here. An analysis of the method's performance in terms of target-search success is also included.