A projected Lloyd’s algorithm for coverage control problems

This work presents a new approach for a coverage problem for large areas and a limited number of sensors. We consider the problem where there are not enough sensors to provide complete coverage of the designated area at once, and therefore the sensors should coordinate their coverage in a sequential manner. Furthermore, we require that at each stage of coverage, a sub-region in the area is constantly monitored. Our solution approach is a combination of two algorithms: the first is Lloyd’s algorithm, which is well known and used in this field, and the second one is a modified Lloyd’s algorithm that we term the projected Lloyd’s Algorithm. Lastly, we combine Lloyd’s algorithm (and its projected version) with a distance based formation controller. We demonstrate our results with numerical simulations.