Robust Source-Seeking Hybrid Controllers for Autonomous Vehicles

We consider the problem of steering an autonomous vehicle to locate a radiation source utilizing measurements of the radiation intensity only. We propose a control algorithm that locates the source through a sequence of line minimizations of the radiation intensity. We implement in a hybrid controller, with sample-and-hold and logic variables, a discretized version of the algorithm suitable for steering a point-mass vehicle. The algorithm confers global convergence and practical stability properties to the closed-loop hybrid system. We discuss these properties and characterize the region of convergence for the vehicle. Convergence and stability results are supplemented with simulations.