Voronoi-Based Coverage Control of Heterogeneous Disk-Shaped Robots

TL;DR

This paper introduces a Voronoi-based method for coverage control of heterogeneous disk-shaped robots, combining sensory coverage and collision avoidance through a novel vector field planner and practical extensions.

Contribution

It adapts power diagrams to create a new free subdiagram for improved coverage and collision avoidance in heterogeneous robot networks.

Findings

Effective coverage and collision avoidance demonstrated

Heuristic congestion management speeds convergence

Method extends to differential drive kinematics

Abstract

In distributed mobile sensing applications, networks of agents that are heterogeneous respecting both actuation as well as body and sensory footprint are often modelled by recourse to power diagrams --- generalized Voronoi diagrams with additive weights. In this paper we adapt the body power diagram to introduce its "free subdiagram," generating a vector field planner that solves the combined sensory coverage and collision avoidance problem via continuous evaluation of an associated constrained optimization problem. We propose practical extensions (a heuristic congestion manager that speeds convergence and a lift of the point particle controller to the more practical differential drive kinematics) that maintain the convergence and collision guarantees.