Multi-agent search for source localization in a turbulent medium

We extend the gradient-less search strategy referred to as infotaxis to a distributed multi-agent system. Infotaxis is a search strategy that uses sporadic sensor measurements to determine the source location of materials dispersed in a turbulent medium. In this work, we leverage the spatio-temporal sensing capabilities of a mobile sensing agents to optimize the time spent finding and localizing the position of the source using a multi-agent collaborative search strategy. Our results suggest that the proposed multi agent collaborative search strategy leverages the team's ability to obtain simultaneous measurements at different locations to speed up the search process. We present a multi-agent collaborative infotaxis strategy that uses the relative entropy of the system to synthesize a suitable search strategy for the team. The result is a collaborative information theoretic search strategy that results in control actions that maximize the information gained by the team, and improves estimates of the source position. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.