An Efficient Cooperative Mission Planning Method of Heterogeneous Multi-USVs for Sea Area Coverage

Aiming at the problems of task time of each platform varies greatly, and the planned path takes too many turns for cooperative coverage mission of heterogeneous multi-USV s in irregular area, this paper presents an efficient cooperative mission planning method for heterogeneous multi-USVs in sea area coverage. Firstly, considering the difference of maneuver of each platform, the grid trading method is used to divide the task area reasonably, and then the backbone tree model is built in each area to generate the closed path, finally, the planning path is evolved to reduce the number of turns, and the path quality optimization of heterogeneous multi-USV s cooperative coverage in irregular areas are realized. To evaluate the degree of multi-USVs' collaboration for the area covering task, we design the indicator of Misson Time Volatility(MTV). The simulation results show that the method takes into account the speed difference and turn characteristics of each USV, and MTV of USVs' tasks is controlled within 4%. After the evolution, the number of turns is reduced by more than 25%, and the efficient cooperative coverage of heterogeneous multi-USVs is realized.