Evolving Coverage Behaviours For MAVs Using NEAT

James Butterworth, Bastian Broecker, Karl Tuyls, Paolo Paoletti

Abstract: Dynamic coverage - the problem of covering an area evenly and continuously in order to visit all areas of interest - is an important procedure to optimise for any autonomous surveillance system. This work introduces a novel solution to the multi-agent version of this problem in that it achieves high performance in a completely decentralised manner with no reliance on GPS. It does so by using NEAT to optimise agent neural controllers. The controllers are first realised via simulation and then transferred to Micro-Aerial Vehicles (MAVs). The MAVs are modified to include a Ultra-wideband Frequency (UWB) chip which use radio waves to communicate inter drone distances to one another.