Distributed 1D-coverage control for a reconfigurable camera network

In this paper we address the problem of covering narrow indoor or outdoor pathways using a network of mobile Cyclops cameras. We propose and validate a 1D sensingperformance model for the detection behavior of the camera. Based on this, we formulate the covering problem as a new type of 1D locational optimization problem that explicitly accounts for the camera-location dependence of the sensing performance. We propose a distributed control law for reconfiguring camera locations based on the gradient descent approach to solve this problem and prove its convergence. We present simulation results on a pseudo-real data set constructed using indoor experiments.