Persistent coverage control with variable coverage action in multi-robot environment

Abstract

In this paper we tackle the problem of persistent coverage, where a team of agents covers an area whose amount of coverage degrades with time. The task is never accomplished completely due to the coverage decay and the agents have to revisit the domain persistently. In this framework, our contribution is a novel approach which consists not only in developing efficient motion to perform the coverage, but also in covering the domain with a variable coverage action. The agents can adapt its coverage power to the coverage error of the actuator domain, being able to reduce the energy consumption and the coverage error. We propose a new controller for the coverage power and we demonstrate by means of simulations that it is more efficient and flexible than developing the coverage with constant power.