Distributed Finite-time Coverage Control of Multi-quadrotor Systems

This paper investigates the distributed coverage control algorithm of robotic sensor networks consisting of multiple quadcopters which guarantees its finite-time convergence. The proposed technique alters the objective function originated from the locational optimisation problem to accommodate the consensus constraint, and solves the problem within a given time limit. The coverage problem is solved by sending angular-rate and thrust commands to the quadcopters. By exploiting the finite-time stability theory, we ensure that the rotational and translational controllers of the quadcopters are finite-time stable, able to be implemented distributedly, and able to collaboratively drive the quadcopters towards the desired position and velocity of the Voronoi centroid independent of their initial states.