Distributed Coverage Control of Multi-Agent Systems in Uncertain Environments using Heat Transfer Equations

Abstract: This paper addresses the coverage control problem of multi-agent systems in the uncertain environment. With the aid of Voronoi partition, a distributed coverage control formulation of multi-agent system is proposed to complete the workload in uncertain environments. Driven by the gradient of thermal field, each agent is able to move around for clearing the workload on its own subregion. Theoretical analysis is conducted to ensure the completion of workload in finite time. Finally, numerical simulations are carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness and advantages of the proposed coverage control approach as compared to other existing approaches.