Consensus-Based Odor Source Localization by Multiagent Systems

This paper presents an investigation of the task of localizing an unknown source of an odor by heterogeneous multiagent systems. A hierarchical cooperative control strategy has been proposed as a potential candidate to solve the problem. The agents are driven into consensus as soon as the information about the location of source is acquired. The controller has been designed in a hierarchical manner of group decision making, agent path planning, and robust control. In group decision making, the particle swarm optimization algorithm has been used along with the information of the movement of odor molecules to predict the odor source location. Next, a trajectory has been mapped using this predicted location of source, and the information is passed to the control layer. A variable structure control has been used in the control layer due to its inherent robustness and disturbance rejection capabilities. Cases of movement of agents toward the source under consensus and parallel formation have been discussed. The efficacy of the proposed scheme has been confirmed by simulations.