Cooperative guidance of UAVs for area exploration with final target allocation

Fulfillment of complex missions, such as zone watching or multiple target tracking by an UAV can prove very demanding in terms of vehicle ability. A potential way of lessening these demands consists in splitting the initial task into several complementary subtasks. Each subtask can then be completed by one vehicle of a fleet whose cooperation must guarantee the satisfaction of the whole mission. In this paper, zone watching is defined as a cooperative problem where a number of autonomous vehicles must explore a wide area in a limited amount of time. In addition to zone coverage, the dynamical allocation of exit locations is considered. A model predictive control approach is adopted in which the requirements of the mission are specified as cost functions. Simulation results are presented to illustrate the behaviour of the fleet.