Evolving Coverage Behaviours For MAVs Using NEAT

Dynamic coverage - the problem of covering an area evenly and continuously in order to visit all areas of interest - is an important procedure to optimise for any autonomous surveillance system. This work introduces a novel solution to the multi-agent version of this problem in that it achieves high performance in a completely decentralised manner with no reliance on GPS. It does so by using NEAT [12] to optimise agent neural controllers. The controllers are first realised via simulation and then transferred to Micro-Aerial Vehicles (MAVs). The MAVs are modified to include a Ultra-wideband Frequency (UWB) chip which use radio waves to communicate inter drone distances to one another.

Authors

• James Butterworth University of Liverpool
• Bastian Broecker University of Liverpool
• Karl Tuyls University of Liverpool
• Paolo Paoletti University of Liverpool

Keywords

• neuroevolution
• NEAT
• micro-aerial vehicles
• dynamic coverage