Leaderless cooperative control of robotic sensor networks for monitoring dynamic pollutant plumes

Abstract

In this paper, the problem of cooperative control of robotic sensor networks (RSNs) for monitoring dynamic pollutant plumes in two‐dimensional (2D) space is studied. The pollutant plume propagation dynamics is governed by a 2D advection‐diffusion partial differential equation (PDE), and the plume front is modelled by a level set with a pre‐specified threshold value. Distributed consensus Luenberger‐type PDE observers are first constructed using local concentration measurements from the RSNs for unanimous estimate of the dynamic concentration field over the entire spatial domain. With the aid of the distributed consensus observers, a leaderless cooperative control scheme is then developed for the RSNs to monitor the dynamic plume front expansion. It is proved using the Lyapunov stability method and set stability concept that the proposed cooperative control scheme guarantees tracking of the dynamic plume front expansion and coverage of the plume front. Extensive numerical simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness and merit of the proposed cooperative control scheme.