A hybrid approach to persistent coverage in stochastic environments

This paper considers the persistent coverage of a 2-D manifold that has been embedded in 3-D space. The manifold is subject to continual impact by intruders which travel at constant velocities along arbitrarily oriented straight-line trajectories. The trajectories of intruders are estimated online with an extended Kalman filter and their predicted impact points contribute normally distributed decay terms to the coverage level. A formal hybrid control strategy is presented that allows for power constrained 3-D free-flyer agents to persistently monitor the domain, track and intercept intruders, and periodically deploy from and return to a single charging station on the manifold. Guarantees on intruder interception with respect to agent power lifespans are formally proven. The efficacy of the algorithm is demonstrated through simulation. Published by Elsevier Ltd.