Energy-aware Persistent Coverage and Intruder Interception in 3D Dynamic 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 collisions by intruders that are generated with random 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 map. 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.