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Minimum Time Multi-UGV Surveillance

  • Conference paper
Optimization and Cooperative Control Strategies

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Control and Information Sciences ((LNCIS,volume 381))

Abstract

This chapter addresses the problem of concurrent task and path planning for a number of surveillance Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) such that a user defined area of interest is covered by the UGVs’ sensors in minimum time.

We first formulate the problem, and show that it is in fact a generalization of the Multiple Traveling Salesmen Problem (MTSP), which is known to be \(\mathcal{NP}\)-hard. We then propose a solution that decomposes the problem into three subproblems. The first is to find a maximal convex covering of the search area. Most results on static coverage use disjoint partitions of the search area, e.g., triangulation, to convert the continuous sensor positioning problem into a discrete one. However, by a simple example, we show that a highly overlapping set of maximal convex sets is better suited for minimum time coverage.

The second subproblem is a combinatorial assignment and ordering of the sets in the cover. Since the Tabu search algorithm is known to perform well on various routing problems, we use it as a part of our proposed solution.

Finally, the third subproblem utilizes a particular shortest path sub-routine in order to find the vehicle paths, and calculate the overall objective function used in the Tabu search. The proposed algorithm is illustrated by a number of simulation examples.

Funded by the Swedish defence materiel administration (FMV) and the Swedish armed forces through the Technologies for Autonomous and Intelligent Systems (TAIS) project. 297316-LB704859.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Optimization and Systems Theory, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), SE-100 44, Stockholm, Sweden

    David Anisi

  2. Department of Autonomous Systems, Swedish Defence Research Institute (FOI), SE-164 90, Stockholm, Sweden

    Petter Ögren

Authors
  1. David Anisi
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  2. Petter Ögren
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Raytheon, Inc, St. Petersburg, FL, USA

    Michael J. Hirsch

  2. Munitions Directorate, Eglin AFB, USA

    Clayton W. Commander  & Robert Murphey  & 

  3. University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

    Panos M. Pardalos

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© 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Anisi, D., Ögren, P. (2009). Minimum Time Multi-UGV Surveillance. In: Hirsch, M.J., Commander, C.W., Pardalos, P.M., Murphey, R. (eds) Optimization and Cooperative Control Strategies. Lecture Notes in Control and Information Sciences, vol 381. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-88063-9_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-88063-9_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-88062-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-88063-9

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

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