On the Convergence of Density-Based Predictive Control for Multi-Agent Non-Uniform Area Coverage

Abstract

This paper presents Density-based Predictive Control (DPC), a novel multi-agent control strategy for efficient non-uniform area coverage, grounded in optimal transport theory. In large-scale scenarios such as search and rescue or environmental monitoring, traditional uniform coverage fails to account for varying regional priorities. DPC leverages a pre-constructed reference distribution to allocate agents' coverage efforts, spending more time in high-priority or densely sampled regions. We analyze convergence conditions using the Wasserstein distance, derive an analytic optimal control law for unconstrained cases, and propose a numerical method for constrained scenarios. Simulations on first-order dynamics and linearized quadrotor models demonstrate that DPC achieves trajectories closely matching the non-uniform reference distribution, outperforming existing coverage methods.