Bearing-based Autonomous Communication Relay Positioning under Field-of-View Constraints

TL;DR

This paper presents a bearing-based control strategy for autonomous relay vehicles to establish communication links with multiple agents while maintaining their field-of-view and avoiding collisions, validated through simulations and experiments.

Contribution

It introduces a novel bearing-based control law for relay vehicles that handles multiple agents and incorporates collision avoidance, with proven effectiveness.

Findings

Control law effectively maintains communication links.

Collision avoidance scheme ensures safety.

Simulations and experiments validate approach.

Abstract

This paper investigates the problem of communication relay establishment for multiple agent-based mobile units using a relay vehicle. The objective is to drive autonomously the relay vehicle to attain a position for communication relay establishment while maintaining the other vehicles inside of its field-of-view. A bearing-based control law is proposed for the relay drone and designed for both single and multiple agents. We also provide a collision avoidance scheme that ensures no collisions between the relay and other agents. Numerical simulations and experimental results are reported as well to show the efficacy of the proposed approach.