Coverage Path Planning With Budget Constraints for Multiple Unmanned Ground Vehicles

This paper proposes an innovative approach to coverage path planning and obstacle avoidance for multiple Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) in a changing environment, taking into account constraints on the time, path length, number of UGVs and obstacles. Our approach leverages deformable virtual leader...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on intelligent transportation systems 2023-11, Vol.24 (11), p.1-17
Main Authors: Tran, Vu Phi, Perera, Asanka, Garratt, Matthew A., Kasmarik, Kathryn, Anavatti, Sreenatha G.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Algorithms
autonomous vehicles
Budgets
Changing environments
Coverage path planning
Formability
formation control
Obstacle avoidance
optimisation technique
Path planning
spanning tree coverage
Steering
Swarming
Unmanned ground vehicles
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Summary:This paper proposes an innovative approach to coverage path planning and obstacle avoidance for multiple Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) in a changing environment, taking into account constraints on the time, path length, number of UGVs and obstacles. Our approach leverages deformable virtual leader-follower formations to enable UGVs to adapt their formation based on both planned and real-time sensor data. A hierarchical block algorithm is employed to identify areas in the environment where UGV formations can spread out to meet time and budget constraints. Additionally, we introduce a novel control scheme that allows each UGV to generate a local steering force to dodge any static and mobile obstacles based on the closest safe angle. Results from simulations and real UGV experiments demonstrate that our approach achieves a higher coverage percentage than rule-based and reactive swarming approaches without planning. Our approach offers a promising solution for efficient coverage path planning and obstacle avoidance in complex environments with multiple UGVs.
ISSN:1524-9050
1558-0016
DOI:10.1109/TITS.2023.3285624