Autonomous Multi-Robot Search for a Hazardous Source in a Turbulent Environment
Finding the source of an accidental or deliberate release of a toxic substance into the atmosphere is of great importance for national security. The paper presents a search algorithm for turbulent environments which falls into the class of cognitive (infotaxi) algorithms. Bayesian estimation of the...
Main Authors: | , , , |
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Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Published: |
MDPI AG
2017-04-01
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Series: | Sensors |
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/17/4/918 |
Summary: | Finding the source of an accidental or deliberate release of a toxic substance into the atmosphere is of great importance for national security. The paper presents a search algorithm for turbulent environments which falls into the class of cognitive (infotaxi) algorithms. Bayesian estimation of the source parameter vector is carried out using the Rao–Blackwell dimension-reduction method, while the robots are controlled autonomously to move in a scalable formation. Estimation and control are carried out in a centralised replicated fusion architecture assuming all-to-all communication. The paper presents a comprehensive numerical analysis of the proposed algorithm, including the search-time and displacement statistics. |
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ISSN: | 1424-8220 |