In the future, autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) need to work in teams with
Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) to share information and coordinate activities. The private
sector and government agencies have implemented UAVs and UGVs for homeland security,
reconnaissance, surveillance, data collection, urban planning, and geomatics engineering.
Significant research is in progress to support the decision-making process for a Multi-Agent
System (MAS) consisting of multiple UGVs and UAVs. The proposed five-year research program will
contribute to these efforts by investigating fundamental issues in intelligent control of
(MASs, including cooperation, coordination, sensor fusion, collision-free navigation and
teleoperation of multiple UGVs and UAVs. MASs with multiple UGVs and UAVs are typical distributed
systems. We will use artificial intelligence approaches to develop intelligent control algorithms
for the cooperation and coordination of autonomous vehicles. We will also develop technologies
for sensor fusion and collision-free navigation because they are critical issues for systems in
a dynamic and unknown environment. When using UGVs and UAVs in hazardous or unknown environments,
it is often desirable for a human operator to be able to teleoperate the system. Therefore,
we will develop teleoperation mechanisms for a team of UAVs and UGVs. Simulation technologies
have become important to the development of aerospace vehicles. In this research, we will integrate
a high-fidelity UAV model with mobile robots and networked computers as a test bed for the
control of multiple UAVs and UGVs. The proposed MAS control technologies will improve the
reliability and efficiency of the control of distributed systems. The results will have wide
applications in both commercial sectors and the defence industry. Furthermore, the research will
provide training for highly qualified personnel in the areas of intelligent systems, control
theories, robotics and aerospace, which are highly demanded by Canadian employers.
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