Distributed coverage control with mobile robots: A potential game approach


Guler S.

Niğde Ömer Halisdemir Üniversitesi Mühendislik Bilimleri Dergisi, vol.12, no.4, pp.1271-1281, 2023 (Peer-Reviewed Journal) identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 12 Issue: 4
  • Publication Date: 2023
  • Doi Number: 10.28948/ngumuh.1293191
  • Journal Name: Niğde Ömer Halisdemir Üniversitesi Mühendislik Bilimleri Dergisi
  • Journal Indexes: Academic Search Premier, Directory of Open Access Journals, TR DİZİN (ULAKBİM)
  • Page Numbers: pp.1271-1281
  • Abdullah Gül University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

The use of mobile robots in industrial applications has led to a demand for autonomous multi-robot systems with robust and distributed algorithms. A critical objective in such systems is coverage control, where a team of mobile robots need to respond to spatiotemporal events in a bounded region. Here, we address a specific coverage problem, where a group of mobile robots are tasked with responding to events by covering specific locations on two sides of a linear workstation. We formulate the problem as a game played by the mobile robots with well-designed player strategies, and we demonstrate that the resulting framework is a potential game based on equally shared utilities among the robots. The proposed framework is distributed and decentralized, allowing for anonymous identities and constrained sensing capabilities in the robots. A set of simulation studies verify our approach.