A receding horizon scheme for constrained multi-vehicle coverage problems
This paper proposes a receding horizon optimization framework (RHC) for finding an approximate solution to different constrained multi-vehicle coverage problems. The optimization is based on the algorithm we have already developed for unconstrained multi-vehicle coverage problem, which inherently possessed some nice properties for dealing with unconstrained coverage problem setups. Although it was shown that the algorithm had preferred to choose obstacle-free areas during the task execution, it was not possible to guarantee collision free paths. The proposed RHC is, however, capable of handling constraints that might be present within a coverage problem, such as those imposed by the presence of obstacles and/or by different time limitations imposed on the duration of the vehicles' missions.