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Distributed cooperative coverage of mobile robots with consensus-based connectivity estimation

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Abstract

This paper deals with the discrete-time connected coverage problem with the constraint that only local information can be utilized for each robot. In such distributed framework, global connectivity characterized by the second smallest eigenvalue of topology Laplacian is estimated through introducing distributed minimaltime consensus algorithm and power iteration algorithm. A self-deployment algorithm is developed to disperse the robots with the precondition that the estimated second smallest eigenvalue is positive at each time-step. Since thus connectivity constraint does not impose to preserve some certain edges, the self-deployment strategy developed in this paper reserves a sufficient degree of freedom for the motion of robots. Theoretical analysis demonstrates that each pair of neighbor robots can finally reach the largest objective distance from each other while the group keeps connected all the time, which is also shown by simulations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Information Science and Technology, Donghua University, Shanghai, 201620, China

    Xiao-li Li  (李晓丽), Shu-guang Zhao  (赵曙光) & Hao Liu  (刘 浩)

  2. Key Laboratory of System Control and Information Processing of Ministry of Education, Shanghai, 200240, China

    Xiao-li Li  (李晓丽)

Authors
  1. Xiao-li Li  (李晓丽)
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  2. Shu-guang Zhao  (赵曙光)
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  3. Hao Liu  (刘 浩)
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xiao-li Li  (李晓丽).

Additional information

Foundation item: the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 61203073 and 61271114), the Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (No. 20120075120008), the Foundation of Key Laboratory of System Control and Information Processing, Ministry of Education, China (No. SCIP2012002)

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Li, Xl., Zhao, Sg. & Liu, H. Distributed cooperative coverage of mobile robots with consensus-based connectivity estimation. J. Shanghai Jiaotong Univ. (Sci.) 19, 279–286 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12204-014-1500-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12204-014-1500-z

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