A distributed bio-inspired algorithm for search of moving targets in three dimensional spaces

Abstract

This paper considers the problem of detecting mobile targets moving in a 3D space by a mobile robotic sensor network. We propose a bio-inspired random search mechanism supplemented with a grid based distribution strategy for search in bounded 3D areas. Using this algorithm, the mobile robots do the search task by randomly moving to the vertices of a common 3D covering grid from any initial position. The proposed algorithm uses some simple consensus rules for building a common covering grid, also it uses a random walk search pattern drawn by a Levy flight probability distribution to do the search task. Performance of the proposed algorithm is evaluated by simulations and comparison to the Levy walk random search method. Also, we give mathematically rigorous proof of convergence with probability 1 of the proposed algorithm.