NDLI: Deploying the max-sum algorithm for decentralised coordination and task allocation of unmanned aerial vehicles for live aerial imagery collection

Content Provider	IEEE Xplore Digital Library
Author	Delle Fave, F.M. Rogers, A. Xu, Z. Sukkarieh, S. Jennings, N.R.
Copyright Year	2012
Description	Author affiliation: Australian Center for Field Robotics, Australia (Xu, Z.; Sukkarieh, S.) \|\| University of Southampton, UK (Delle Fave, F.M.; Rogers, A.; Jennings, N.R.)
Abstract	We introduce a new technique for coordinating teams of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) when deployed to collect live aerial imagery of the scene of a disaster. We define this problem as one of task assignment where the UAVs dynamically coordinate over tasks representing the imagery collection requests. To measure the quality of the assignment of one or more UAVs to a task, we propose a novel utility function which encompasses several constraints, such as the task's importance and the UAVs' battery capacity so as to maximise performance. We then solve the resulting optimisation problem using a fully asynchronous and decentralised implementation of the max-sum algorithm, a well known message passing algorithm previously used only in simulated domains. Finally, we evaluate our approach both in simulation and on real hardware. First, we empirically evaluate our utility and show that it yields a better trade off between the quantity and quality of completed tasks than similar utilities that do not take all the constraints into account. Second, we deploy it on two hexacopters and assess its practical viability in the real world.
Starting Page	469
Ending Page	476
File Size	655240
Page Count	8
File Format	PDF
ISBN	9781467314039
ISSN	10504729
e-ISBN	9781467314053
e-ISBN	9781467314046
DOI	10.1109/ICRA.2012.6225053
Language	English
Publisher	Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
Publisher Date	2012-05-14
Publisher Place	USA
Access Restriction	Subscribed
Rights Holder	Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
Subject Keyword	Batteries Equations Mathematical model Buildings Personal digital assistants Battery charge measurement Optimization
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Artificial Intelligence Control and Systems Engineering Electrical and Electronic Engineering Software

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