Centroidal Area-Constrained Partitioning for Robotic Networks

Abstract

We consider the problem of optimal coverage with area-constraints in a mobile multi-agent system. For a planar environment with an associated density function, this problem is equivalent to dividing the environment into optimal subregions such that each agent is responsible for the coverage of its own region. In this paper, we design a continuous-time distributed policy which allows a team of agents to achieve a convex area-constrained partition of a convex workspace. Our work is related to the classic Lloyd algorithm, and makes use of generalized Voronoi diagrams. We also discuss practical implementation for real mobile networks. Simulation methods are presented and discussed.