Dynamic Aerial Coverage of Stationary and Moving Structures Using Lissajous Curves

Abstract

In this paper, we present a novel dynamic aerial coverage strategy using the concept of Lissajous curves. We apply our coverage strategy to the problems of coverage of a surface enclosing the structure, coverage using multiple agents, coverage by conforming to the shape of the structure, and coverage of a moving vehicle. For coverage by conforming to the shape, we introduce an attractive-repulsive force that ensures that the agent is locked at an optimum distance from the structure’s surface while moving around it; for coverage of a moving vehicle, we introduce a follower force that corrects for the error in the speed of the covering agent along the heading direction of the vehicle. We discuss a wide variety of enclosing surfaces that can be used and introduce two novel metrics, [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text], that measure the completeness and uniformity of the coverage, respectively. Finally, we demonstrate extensions of our coverage strategy to diverse applications, such as preferential coverage and coverage of complex structures.