Multi‐Sensor Optimal Motion Planning for Radiological Contamination Surveys by Using Prediction‐Difference Maps

Abstract

Distributed and networked mobile sensor platforms using unmanned aerial and/or ground vehicles to survey areas of interest offer a safer and more efficient method for radiological contamination mapping; however, most applications rely on uniformly sweeping of the area in a raster‐type motion without utilizing the information available in a dynamic sense. We have developed a fully autonomous optimal motion planning procedure for networks with two or more mobile sensors. The procedure utilizes well‐established concepts of Gaussian processes in combination with control laws based on centroidal Voronoi tessellations to achieve optimal next‐iteration sensor movements. A new method of informing optimal motion planning is proposed, whereby the absolute difference between the prior and current full‐map prediction, referred to as the prediction‐difference map, is used as the spatial density function within each Voronoi cell, providing immediate and iterative feedback for dynamic use of available information. The Gaussian process regression model used to estimate the contamination in unvisited locations also provides prediction uncertainties, and can be used as a quantitative metric to assess the confidence in the calculated contamination map; these estimates and prediction uncertainties are unavailable for standard uniform survey routines as they can only produce maps in the vicinity of observed locations. We present through simulation the achievable performance gains from using this new method by directly comparing to a uniform survey method. Results show that using the prediction‐difference maps to inform motion planning procedures offers a faster rate of producing an accurate and convergent map relative to a uniform survey route.