We consider a team of nonholonomic Dubins-car like robots traveling forward over paths with bounded curvatures in a planar region supporting an unknown scalar field. Every robot measures the field value at its location and has no communication facilities; the robots are anonymous to one another. The objective is to detect and localize the level set where the unknown field assumes a given value. We present a new distributed navigation and guidance strategy that ensures convergence of all robots to the desired level set and its subsequent display via stable circulation of the robots along this set. Moreover, this strategy prevents collisions between the robots and ultimately provides their sub-uniform distribution over the level set, so that the entire team effectively and representatively portrays this set. The proposed control strategy does not employ gradient estimation, which typically needs ineffective concentration of robots into tight clusters, and is non-demanding with respect to both computation and motion. Its mathematically rigorous justification is provided. The effectiveness of the proposed guidance law is confirmed by computer simulations and real-world experiments.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2014 6th International Congress on Ultra Modern Telecommunications and Control Systems and Workshops, ICUMT 2014
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages352-359
Number of pages8
EditionJanuary
ISBN (Electronic)9781479952915
DOIs
StatePublished - 2014
Event2014 6th International Congress on Ultra Modern Telecommunications and Control Systems and Workshops, ICUMT 2014 - St. Petersburg, Russian Federation
Duration: 6 Oct 20148 Oct 2014

Publication series

NameInternational Congress on Ultra Modern Telecommunications and Control Systems and Workshops
NumberJanuary
Volume2015-January
ISSN (Print)2157-0221
ISSN (Electronic)2157-023X

Conference

Conference2014 6th International Congress on Ultra Modern Telecommunications and Control Systems and Workshops, ICUMT 2014
Country/TerritoryRussian Federation
CitySt. Petersburg
Period6/10/148/10/14

    Scopus subject areas

  • Computer Networks and Communications
  • Control and Systems Engineering

ID: 4009886