Unicycle Coverage Control Via Hybrid Modeling

This technical note presents gradient-descent coverage algorithms for a group of nonholonomic vehicles. Similarly to previous approaches, the deployment strategy relies on Locational Optimization techniques and algorithms are distributed in the sense of the Delaunay graph. In order to deal with unicycle dynamics and guarantee performance, we introduce several vehicle modes and integrate them in a hybrid system. We then analyze the algorithms with a recently introduced invariance principle for hybrid systems.