Optimal coverage for multiple hovering robots with downward facing cameras

— This paper presents a distributed control strategy for deploying hovering robots with multiple downward facing cameras to collectively monitor an environment. Information per pixel is proposed as an optimization criterion for multicamera placement problems. This metric is used to derive a specific cost function for multiple downward facing cameras mounted on hovering robot platforms. The cost function leads to a gradient-based distributed controller for positioning the robots. A convergence proof using LaSalle’s invariance principle is given to show that the robots converge to locally optimal positions. The controller is demonstrated in experiments with three flying quad-rotor robots.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2009
• Where: ICRA
• Authors: Mac Schwager, Brian J. Julian, Daniela Rus
• Keywords: Downward Facing Cameras, ICRA 2009, Multiple Downward Facing, Robotics, Robots