Adaptive collaborative coverage control for Multi-Stratospheric Airship within unknown non-uniform wind field

Abstract

This paper investigates the coverage control problem for Multi-Stratospheric Airship (MSA) system within unknown non-uniform wind field. To address the challenge of deploying airships strategically in regions with weak wind, an adaptive collaborative coverage control algorithm is proposed. The algorithm includes a coverage planning approach based on wind field estimation and an airship motion control approach. Firstly, as accurate wind field data in the mission area is unavailable, an adaptive estimation algorithm based on the Gaussian approximation method is proposed to estimate the wind data. This involves processing discrete wind field sampling information with a density function. Secondly, an event-triggered dynamic tracking controller with a neural network to handle model uncertainties is proposed to steer the MSA system approaching a near-optimal configuration. Additionally, convergence of the coverage system is proven through a Lyapunov-like proof. Simulation results illustrate the superior performance of the adaptive collaborative coverage control algorithm.