Connectivity-aware coordination of robotic networks for area coverage optimization

The scope of this paper is the development of a distributed control scheme for mobile sensor networks in order to optimize coverage performance over a region of interest, while simultaneously guarantee information flow among neighbouring nodes via valid communication links. The nodes evolve in time in order to increase network coverage via distributed information acquired from their neighbours. Unlike previous works, the communication radii of the nodes are assumed fixed and less than twice the sensing ones, imposing an extra constraint concerning connectivity preservation in the overall problem formulation. Efficiency of the proposed scheme is further confirmed via simulation studies.