A Distributed Connectivity Optimization Method for Coverage Control of the Multi-agent System

Coverage control describes the optimal deployment problem of multi-agent system with communication sensors, aiming to drive the multi-agent system reach the optimal deployment location. To accomplish coverage tasks, agents are required to communicate with each other. Thus, the connectivity of multi-agent system is a fundamental requirement in case of agent disconnection and disappearance. In this paper, we propose a distributed coverage control algorithm with connectivity optimization. According to the designed cost function, the controller is divided into two parts: coverage controller and connectivity optimization controller, and the method of gradient descent is used to minimize the cost function to get the controller. Finally, the simulation serves to show the effectiveness of the algorithm.