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Within this dissertation, the problem of the control of the decentralized path planning decision processes of multiple cooperating autonomous aerial vehicles engaged in search of an uncertain environment is considered. The environment is modeled in a probabilistic fashion, such that both a priori and dynamic information about it can be incorporated. The components of the environment include both target information and threat information. Using the information about the environment, a computationally feasible decision process is formulated that can decide, in a near optimal fashion, which path a searching vehicle should take, using a dynamic programming algorithm with a limited look ahead horizon, with the possibility to extend the horizon using Approximate Dynamic Programming. A planning vehicle must take into account the effects of its (local) actions on meeting global goals. This is accomplished using a passive and predictive cooperation scheme among the vehicles. Lastly, a flexible simulator has been developed, using sound simulation analysis methods, to simulate a UAV search team, which can be used to create statistically valid results demonstrating the effectiveness of the model and solution methods. |
