Cooperative Observation of Multiple Moving Targets: an algorithm and its formalization

Abstract

This paper presents a distributed control algorithm for multi-target surveillance by multiple robots. Robots equipped with sensors and communication devices discover and track as many evasive targets as possible in an open region. The algorithm utilizes information from sensors, communication, and a mechanism to predict the minimum time before a robot loses a target. Workload is shared locally between robots using a greedy assignment of targets. Across long distances robots cooperate through explicit communication. The approach is coined Behavioral Cooperative Multi-robot Observation of Multiple Moving Targets. A formal representation of the proposed algorithm as well as proofs of performance guarantee are provided. Extensive simulations confirm the theoretical results in practice.