Distributed Coverage Optimization and Control with Applications to Precision Agriculture

In this paper, distributed coverage optimization and control problem with collision avoidance and parameter estimation are studied. First, we consider the case that the density function $\phi(q)$ is known by all the robots in the network. By using the interaction term of Voronoi neighbour, coverage optimization and control protocols are designed in a distributed way such that the best position of each robot can be determined and all the robots can move to the best positions without collision. Then, we consider the case that the density function $\phi(q)$ is not known by the robots. By using the adaptive technique, the density function $\phi(q)$ can be estimated in a fast and distributed way. Finally, the proposed coverage control scheme are applied to remote sensing for precision farming and the effectiveness of the strategy is validated through some simulation results.