Event-triggered intervention framework for uav-ugv coordination systems

Abstract

Air-ground coordination systems are usually composed of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and unmanned ground vehicles (UGV). In such a system, UAVs can utilize their much more perceptive information to plan the path for UGVs. However, the correctness and accuracy of the planned route are often not guaranteed, and the communication and computation burdens increase with more sophisticated algorithms. This paper proposes a new type of air-ground coordination framework to enable UAVs intervention into UGVs tasks. An event-triggered mechanism in the null space behavior control (NSBC) framework is proposed to decide if an intervention is necessary and the timing of the intervention. Then, the problem of whether to accept the intervention is formulated as an integer programming problem and is solved using model predictive control (MPC). Simulation results show that the UAV can intervene in UGVs accurately and on time, and the UGVs can effectively decide whether to accept the intervention to get rid of troubles, thereby improving the intelligence of the air-ground coordination system.