University of Hertfordshire Research Archive

        JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

        Browse

        All of UHRABy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitles

        Arkivum Files

        My Downloads
        View Item 
        • UHRA Home
        • University of Hertfordshire
        • Research publications
        • View Item
        • UHRA Home
        • University of Hertfordshire
        • Research publications
        • View Item

        A virtual force interaction scheme for multi-robot environment monitoring

        View/Open
        Manuscript_RAS.pdf (PDF, 8Mb)(embargoed until 09/12/2022)
        Author
        Ji, Kang
        Zhang, Qian
        Yuan, Zhi
        Cheng, Hui
        Yu, Dingli
        Attention
        2299/25263
        Abstract
        The autonomous multi-robot system is an emerging technology that has a wide range of potential applications, such as environmental monitoring, exploration of unknown area, battlefield surveillance, and search and rescue. One major challenge in such applications is how to deploy each robotic agent autonomously in a distributed manner. In this paper, we proposed a distributed coverage control strategy named multi-stage virtual force interaction scheme (VFIS), where the agents’ deployment process is split into stages and each agent iteratively seeks its next position according to the interaction among agents and the interaction between agents and the perceived environment. The interactions are realized via virtual repulsive forces and virtual vortex forces, where the latter are newly proposed to enhance the exploration capability of agents. We also designed a group of benchmark testing problems for the mission of monitoring coverage of complex environments with unknown obstacles. Extensive simulation experiments were conducted based on the defined benchmark configurations and the results showed a favourable performance of the invented strategy. In addition, practical experiments were carried out using a group of mobile robots, which validated the effectiveness of the proposed method.
        Publication date
        2021-12-09
        Published in
        Robotics and Autonomous Systems
        Published version
        https://doi.org/10.1016/j.robot.2021.103967
        Other links
        http://hdl.handle.net/2299/25263
        Relations
        School of Physics, Engineering & Computer Science
        Metadata
        Show full item record
        Keep in touch

        © 2019 University of Hertfordshire

        I want to...

        • Apply for a course
        • Download a Prospectus
        • Find a job at the University
        • Make a complaint
        • Contact the Press Office

        Go to...

        • Accommodation booking
        • Your student record
        • Bayfordbury
        • KASPAR
        • UH Arts

        The small print

        • Terms of use
        • Privacy and cookies
        • Criminal Finances Act 2017
        • Modern Slavery Act 2015
        • Sitemap

        Find/Contact us

        • T: +44 (0)1707 284000
        • E: ask@herts.ac.uk
        • Where to find us
        • Parking
        • hr
        • qaa
        • stonewall
        • AMBA
        • ECU Race Charter
        • disability confident
        • AthenaSwan