Stochastic and Dynamic Routing Problems for Multiple Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles
Author(s)
Frazzoli, Emilio; Enright, John J.; Bullo, Francesco; Savla, Ketan
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Consider a routing problem for a team of vehicles in the plane: target
points appear randomly over time in a bounded environment and must be
visited by one of the vehicles. It is desired to minimize the expected system
time for the targets, i.e., the expected time elapsed between the appearance
of a target point, and the instant it is visited. In this paper, such a routing
problem is considered for a team of Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles (UAVs),
modeled as vehicles moving with constant forward speed along paths of
bounded curvature. Three algorithms are presented, each designed for a
distinct set of operating conditions. Each is proven to provide a system
time within a constant factor of the optimal when operating under the ap-
propriate conditions. It is shown that the optimal routing policy depends
on problem parameters such as the workload per vehicle and the vehicle
density in the environment. Finally, there is discussion of a phase transi-
tion between two of the policies as the problem parameters are varied. In
particular, for the case in which targets appear sporadically, a dimension-
less parameter is identi ed which completely captures this phase transition
and an estimate of the critical value of the parameter is provided.
Date issued
2009-01Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics; Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Laboratory for Information and Decision SystemsJournal
Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics
Publisher
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Citation
Enright, John J., Ketan Savla, Emilio Frazzoli, and Francesco Bullo. "Stochastic and Dynamic Routing Problems for Multiple Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles." Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics (2009), vol.32:no.4 p.1152-1166.
Version: Author's final manuscript
ISSN
0731-5090