Multi-robot Coverage Path Planning using Hexagonal Segmentation for Geophysical Surveys

Title: Multi-robot Coverage Path Planning using Hexagonal Segmentation for Geophysical Surveys Authors: Héctor Azpúrua, Gustavo M. Freitas, Douglas G. Macharet, and Mario F. M. Campos DOI: Abstract: The field of robotics has received significant attention in our society due to the extensive use of robotic manipulators; however, recent advances in the research on autonomous vehicles have demonstrated a broader range of applications, such as exploration, surveillance, and environmental monitoring. In this sense, the problem of efficiently building a model of the environment using cooperative mobile robots is critical. Finding routes that are either length or time-optimized is essential for real-world applications of small autonomous robots. This paper addresses the problem of multi-robot area coverage path planning for geophysical surveys. Such surveys have many applications in mineral exploration, geology, archeology, and oceanography, among other fields. We propose a