Coverage control of multi-agent systems with different entry times

This paper proposes a coverage problem of multi-agent systems, in which a group of agents enter a given region at different times and are required to cover the given region cooperatively. The focus of this paper is to solve the coverage problem of multi-agent systems with a non-convex optimization approach. By introducing appropriate assumptions, a gradient-based control law is designed based on the information of the previous stage agents. However, the performance index of each stage is nonlinear and generally non-convex and may have multiple local optima to which a gradient may converge. Thus, an effective boosting function, which is used to prevent the non-convex optimization problem getting into local optimum, is shown. It is proved in the sense of Lyapunov that the global coverage for the multi-agent systems with different entry time for coming into the given region can be achieved. Numerical simulations with cooperative control of industries subsystems show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.