Multiple UAV exploration of an unknown region

Abstract

In this paper, we present an exploration system for multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) navigating through a simulated unknown region that contains obstacles of unknown shape, size, and initial position. The UAVs have to explore and monitor the region continuously. The UAVs have limited sensor and communication ranges and kinematic constraints. The environment may have blind alleys that may cause the UAV to collide with an obstacle. Since the UAVs have limited sensor range, they cannot detect whether the alleys lead to an obstacle or not. Due to the presence of multiple agents and kinematic constraints, the UAVs have to cooperate with each other in selecting their paths, otherwise they may collide with each other. The physical and sensor constraints on the UAVs, coupled with uncertainty in the environment makes the problem of multiple UAVs exploring the unknown region a difficult problem. We developed an exploration system that uses (a) an exploration algorithm to generates safe paths for travel in narrow corridors and (b) a dynamic leader selection scheme to take the presence of multiple agents into account. We also determine the minimum communication range required to ensure no collisions occur inside the narrow corridors. Monte-Carlo simulation were carried out to analyze the effect on area coverage with changes in number of agents, sensor range, and communication range.