Multi UAV negotiation for coordinated tracking of contaminant cloud

In this paper, we develop a mechanism to detect and model the shape of a contaminant cloud boundary using air borne sensor swarms. The UAV sensors detect discrete points on the boundary of a contaminant cloud, which is used for cloud modeling. The shape of the cloud evolves with the measurement data from the UAV sensors, which in turn indicates the region where the UAVs should explore for better approximation of the cloud boundary. A negotiation mechanism is developed for the allocation of the regions of exploration to the UAVs. The evolution of the UAV trajectories while exploring a sample cloud distribution is simulated to illustrate the tracking and reconstruction of the shape of the cloud and the negotiation mechanism.