Multiple Robot Path Planning Strategies for Bush Fire Fighting

This paper addresses path planning strategies for multiple robots to cooperate to extinguish a many fronted bush fire where the need to deliver adequate water to each fire front and for each vehicle to carry a limited supply of water is taken into account, as is the time to extinguish each fire front, whose ferocity is proportional to the quantity of water required (estimated) to extinguish it. Both minimal total path length and minimal overall time solutions are sought. The number of robots available, their water carrying capacities and their speeds are specified, as is the number, locations and severity of fire fronts distributed over a known environment with obstacles.