Cooperative Path Planning of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

This book presents the basic tools required to obtain the dynamical models for aerial vehicles (in the Newtonian or Lagrangian approach). Several control laws are presented for mini-helicopters, quadrotors, mini-blimps, flapping-wing aerial vehicles, planes, etc. Finally, this book has two chapters devoted to embedded control systems and Kalman filters applied for aerial vehicles control and navigation. This book presents the state of the art in the area of UAVs. The aerodynamical models of different configurations are presented in detail as well as the control strategies which are validated in experimental platforms.

Offers an integrated presentation for path planning and motion control of cooperative mobile robots using discrete-event system principles Generating feasible paths or routes between a given starting position and a goal or target position—while avoiding obstacles—is a common issue for all mobile robots. This book formulates the problem of path planning of cooperative mobile robots by using the paradigm of discrete-event systems. It presents everything readers need to know about discrete event system models—mainly Finite State Automata (FSA) and Petri Nets (PN)—and methods for centralized path planning and control of teams of identical mobile robots. Path Planning of Cooperative Mobile Robots Using Discrete Event Models begins with a brief definition of the Path Planning and Motion Control problems and their state of the art. It then presents different types of discrete models such as FSA and PNs. The RMTool MATLAB toolbox is described thereafter, for readers who will need it to provide numerical experiments in the last section. The book also discusses cell decomposition approaches and shows how the divided environment can be translated into an FSA by assigning to each cell a discrete state, while the adjacent relation together with the robot's dynamics implies the discrete transitions. Highlighting the benefits of Boolean Logic, Linear Temporal Logic, cell decomposition, Finite State Automata modeling, and Petri Nets, this book also: Synthesizes automatic strategies based on Discrete Event Systems (DES) for path planning and motion control and offers software implementations for the involved algorithms Provides a tutorial for motion planning introductory courses or related simulation-based projects using a MATLAB package called RMTool (Robot Motion Toolbox) Includes simulations for problems solved by methodologies presented in the book Path Planning of Cooperative Mobile Robots Using Discrete Event Models is an ideal book for undergraduate and graduate students and college and university professors in the areas of robotics, artificial intelligence, systems modeling, and autonomous control.

Unmanned systems and robotics technologies have become very popular recently owing to their ability to replace human beings in dangerous, tedious, or repetitious jobs. This book fill the gap in the field between research and real-world applications, providing scientists and engineers with essential information on how to design and employ networked unmanned vehicles for remote sensing and distributed control purposes. Target scenarios include environmental or agricultural applications such as river/reservoir surveillance, wind profiling measurement, and monitoring/control of chemical leaks.

A comprehensive review of the state of the art in the control of multi-agent systems theory and applications The superiority of multi-agent systems over single agents for the control of unmanned air, water and ground vehicles has been clearly demonstrated in a wide range of application areas. Their large-scale spatial distribution, robustness, high scalability and low cost enable multi-agent systems to achieve tasks that could not successfully be performed by even the most sophisticated single agent systems. Cooperative Control of Multi-Agent Systems: Theory and Applications provides a wide-ranging review of the latest developments in the cooperative control of multi-agent systems theory and applications. The applications described are mainly in the areas of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs). Throughout, the authors link basic theory to multi-agent cooperative control practice – illustrated within the context of highly-realistic scenarios of high-level missions – without losing site of the mathematical background needed to provide performance guarantees under general working conditions. Many of the problems and solutions considered involve combinations of both types of vehicles. Topics explored include target assignment, target tracking, consensus, stochastic game theory-based framework, event-triggered control, topology design and identification, coordination under uncertainty and coverage control. Establishes a bridge between fundamental cooperative control theory and specific problems of interest in a wide range of applications areas Includes example applications from the fields of space exploration, radiation shielding, site clearance, tracking/classification, surveillance, search-and-rescue and more Features detailed presentations of specific algorithms and application frameworks with relevant commercial and military applications Provides a comprehensive look at the latest developments in this rapidly evolving field, while offering informed speculation on future directions for collective control systems The use of multi-agent system technologies in both everyday commercial use and national defense is certain to increase tremendously in the years ahead, making this book a valuable resource for researchers, engineers, and applied mathematicians working in systems and controls, as well as advanced undergraduates and graduate students interested in those areas.

A detailed and systematic introduction to the distributed cooperative control of multi-agent systems from a theoretical, network perspective Features detailed analysis and discussions on the distributed cooperative control and dynamics of multi-agent systems Covers comprehensively first order, second order and higher order systems, swarming and flocking behaviors Provides a broad theoretical framework for understanding the fundamentals of distributed cooperative control

Written by experts in the field, this is a much-needed overview of the rapidly emerging field of cooperative catalysis. The authors focus on the design and development of novel high-performance catalysts for applications in organic synthesis (particularly asymmetric synthesis), covering a broad range of topics, from the latest progress in Lewis acid / Br?nsted base catalysis to e.g. metal-assisted organo catalysis, cooperative metal/enzyme catalysis, and cooperative catalysis in polymerization reactions and on solid surfaces. The chapters are classified according to the type of cooperating activating groups, and describe in detail the different strategies of cooperative activation, highlighting their respective advantages and pitfalls. As a result, readers will learn about the different concepts of cooperative catalysis, their corresponding modes of operation and their applications, thus helping to find a solution to a specific synthetic catalysis problem.

This book focuses on the latest trends and research results in Cooperative Networking This book discusses the issues involved in cooperative networking, namely, bottleneck resource management, resource utilization, servers and content, security, and so on. In addition, the authors address instances of cooperation in nature which actively encourage the development of cooperation in telecommunication networks. Following an introduction to the fundamentals and issues surrounding cooperative networking, the book addresses models of cooperation, inspirations of successful cooperation from nature and society, cooperation in networking (for e.g. Peer-to-Peer, wireless ad-hoc and sensor, client-server, and autonomous vehicular networks), cooperation and ambient networking, cooperative caching, cooperative networking for streaming media content, optimal node-task allocation, heterogeneity issues in cooperative networking, cooperative search in networks, and security and privacy issues with cooperative networking. It contains contributions from high profile researchers and is edited by leading experts in this field. Key Features: Focuses on higher layer networking Addresses the latest trends and research results Covers fundamental concepts, models, advanced topics and performance issues in cooperative networking Contains contributions from leading experts in the field Provides an insight into the future direction of cooperative networking Includes an accompanying website containing PowerPoint slides and a glossary of terms (www.wiley.com/go/obaidat_cooperative) This book is an ideal reference for researchers and practitioners working in the field. It will also serve as an excellent textbook for graduate and senior undergraduate courses in computer science, computer engineering, electrical engineering, software engineering, and information engineering and science.