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Distributed path planning for mobile sensors

Active Publication Date: 2015-12-03
MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC RES LAB INC
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  • Summary
  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The patent describes a method for optimizing the movement and orientation of sensors in a distributed system. The sensors communicate with each other to get the best image of their environment. This results in a higher resolution overall image. The main benefit is that this method allows for better imaging of complex environments.

Problems solved by technology

One problem in such systems is planning the paths the sensors should follow, a problem known as path planning.

Method used

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  • Distributed path planning for mobile sensors
  • Distributed path planning for mobile sensors
  • Distributed path planning for mobile sensors

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Embodiment Construction

[0014]FIG. 1 shows a set of mobile sensors 100 according to embodiments of our invention. The sensors can be airborne, ground-based or underwater, among others. The sensors can, for example, be arranged in indoor or outdoor drones, aircraft, or satellites. Each sensor includes a processor 101, an imaging system 102, and a communication system 103. The imaging system has a known footprint for imaging an environment 400, which may depend on the orientation of the sensor. The footprint is a projection of the imaging plane, such as a camera image plane or a radar beam pattern, onto the environment. The imaging system can use, among others, optical imaging, synthetic aperture radar (SAR), hyperspectral imaging, physical aperture radar imaging. For this reason, the term “image” is used broadly.

[0015]The sensors move along paths 102 to image the environment 400. The communication system includes a transceiver so that the sensors can communicate with each other over channels 105. In the pre...

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Abstract

A method plans paths of a set of mobile sensors with changeable positions and orientations in an environment. Each sensor includes a processor, an imaging system and a communication system. A desired resolution of coverage of the environment is defined, and an achieved resolution of the coverage is initialized. For each time instant and each sensor, an image of the environment is acquired using the imaging system. The achieved resolution is updated according to the image. The sensor is moved to a next position and orientation based on the achieved resolution and the desired resolution. Then, local information of the sensor is distributed to other sensors using the communication system to optimize a coverage of the environment.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0001]The invention relates generally to mobile sensors, and more particularly to distributed path planning for the sensors.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]Mobile sensor can be used to acquire images in a coordinated manner. The images can then be used in applications such as surveillance, cartography, and environmental monitoring. One problem in such systems is planning the paths the sensors should follow, a problem known as path planning.[0003]In one such system with holonomic robots, where the controllable degrees of freedom are equal to the total degrees of freedom, anisotropic sensors with a bounded footprint are considered, see Hexsel et al., “Distributed Coverage Control for Mobile Anisotropic Sensor Networks,” Tech. Report CMU-RI-TR-13-01, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, January 2013. That system models a 2-dimensional (2D) environment as a polygon, possibly containing obstacles. A fixed objective function maximizes a joint probability ...

Claims

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Application Information

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IPC IPC(8): G06T3/40G01J3/28G06T7/00G01S7/40
CPCG06T3/4092G01S7/4021G01J3/2823G06T7/0018G06T2207/30244G06T2207/10036G06T2207/10004G06T2207/10044G01J2003/2879G01S13/87G01S13/90G05D1/104G06T1/0007G01C11/06
Inventor BOUFOUNOS, PETROS T.VACCARO, RICHARDBENOSMAN, MOUHACINE
Owner MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC RES LAB INC