Behavior-Based Control for an Aerial Robotic Swarm in Surveillance Missions

Abstract

Aerial robotic swarms have shown benefits for performing search and surveillance missionsin open spaces in the past. Among other properties, these systems are robust, scalable and adaptableto different scenarios. In this work, we propose a behavior-based algorithm to carry out a surveillancetask in a rectangular area with a flexible number of quadcopters, flying at different speeds. Once theefficiency of the algorithm is quantitatively analyzed, the robustness of the system is demonstratedwith 3 different tests: loss of broadcast messages, positioning errors, and failure of half of the agentsduring the mission. Experiments are carried out in an indoor arena with micro quadcopters tosupport simulation results. Finally, a case study is proposed to show a realistic implementation in thetest bed.