Finite Coverage Control Strategy for Multi-robot Networks with Sensor Constraints and Obstacle Avoidance

In the research of coverage control of multi-robot networks, optimal control strategies based on voronoi diagrams are widely used. However, when the range of robot sensors is restricted, the traditional optimal control strategy based on voronoi diagrams cannot achieve optimal coverage of the area. In addition, when considering the presence of obstacles in the robot’s task space as well as the size of the robot itself, the voronoi diagram-based optimal control strategy is unable to handle it due to possible collisions. Therefore, based on the above limitations, a finite coverage control strategy is used for the coverage problem with sensor constraints, and in order to deal with possible collisions between the robots as well as with the obstacles, the control obstacle function is combined with the finite coverage control. The optimal control for each robot is solved in real time by designing a quadratic programming that considers the above constraints. Numerical simulation verifies that the designed controller can effectively achieve coverage of the area in the presence of obstacles and sensing constraints.