Unmanned Aerial and Ground Vehicle Teams: Recent Work and Open Problems

Unmanned aerial and ground vehicle teams present a majoropportunity for expanded operation over individual autonomous vehicles alone. The different perspectives available for sensors, the different operating ranges and payload capabilities, and the ability to observe a target environment from all angles at once all add up to significant improvements in ability to search for and track targets, to inspect infrastructure, to persistently perform surveillance, and to map 3D environments. This chapter surveys recent efforts in unmanned air vehicle (UAV)/unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) team coordination and presents a description of open problems that remain to enable the many applications for which aerial and ground vehicles are well suited.