Investigation of coordination algorithms for swarm robotics conducting area search

Abstract

This master’s thesis developed an operational coordination controller for enabling sensor-based coverage algorithms for large-scale swarm unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The prototype controller was validated by live-fly field experiments of swarm UAVs carried out in Naval Postgraduate School’s (NPS’s) field laboratory at Camp Roberts. The proliferation of hobbyist drones, or UAVs, in recent times has presented the opportunity to field large-scale swarm UAVs. A coordinated swarm of UAVs can prove useful in a surveillance or search mission by rapidly covering the area through data collection from multiple vantage points simultaneously. This thesis designed and implemented an onboard swarm search controller that coordinates the swarm for an autonomous area search with different coverage algorithms. The coverage algorithms are evaluated with simulation and validated by live-fly field experiments.