Self-triggered Distributed k-order Coverage Control

A k-order coverage control problem is studied where a network of agents must deploy over a desired area. The objective is to deploy all the agents in a decentralized manner such that a certain coverage performance metric of the network is maximized. Unlike many prior works that consider multi-agent deployment, we explicitly consider applications where more than one agent may be required to service an event that randomly occurs anywhere in the domain. The proposed method ensures the distributed agents autonomously cover the area while simultaneously relaxing the requirement of constant communication among the agents. In order to achieve the stated goals, a self-triggered coordination method is developed that both determines how agents should move without having to continuously acquire information from other agents, as well as exactly when to communicate and acquire new information. Through analysis, the proposed strategy is shown to provide asymptotic convergence similar to that of continuous or periodic methods. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method can reduce the number of messages exchanged as well as the amount of communication power necessary to accomplish the deployment task.