CAREER: Coordinated Control from Deformable Virtual Structures with Dynamic Communication

与单一车辆或固定传感网络相比，使用多辆车辆来完成联合任务产生了更大的灵活性、稳健性和覆盖范围，成本更低。当此类车辆的操作环境复杂、动态或包含操作危险时，单个车辆必须具有快速响应和高水平机动性的能力。本项目的工作重点是开发和实现在动态环境中通过通信和操作耦合的敏捷车辆组的协调控制理论方法。当传统的设计方法由于在动态信息流和底层系统动态之间存在强耦合的自治系统的运行而失败时，就需要开发这些方法。这项工作将主要受到敏捷水下航行器协调控制方面出现的挑战的推动，然而，其结果也将对诸如在危险城市环境中使用飞机进行基于视觉的侦察等任务产生重大影响。敏捷性、动态通信和操作不确定性的特殊组合要求联合考虑协调控制的通信和协调要素，而不是单独考虑。该项目的目标是：(1)开发一种可变形的虚拟结构方法来实现协同控制，同时捕获由有限通信和车辆约束施加的约束，以及(2)开发足以保证虚拟结构的稳定性和一致性的动态通信结构。车辆组被视为一个虚拟的、可变形的体，由于组成车辆的速度和运动约束以及保持车辆之间通信所需的物理约束，该体实际上处于欠驱动状态。然后，组成车辆成为具有集中动态质量特性的新型虚拟机械系统的演化和运动规划的形状执行器。假设车辆的通信结构是动态的，并将传输连接作为控制变量。利用几何和图论工具选择周期序列来构造通信模式。由此得到的虚拟结构的控制方程描述了一个具有离散时间驱动和振荡动力学的欠驱动机械系统。通过发展平均和状态反馈的新概念，解决了这类系统反馈控制的分析和构造问题。针对水下自动驾驶车辆的应用和实施的研究为各级教育提供了一个迷人的场所。在这种情况下产生的问题具有广泛的理论含义以及实践经验的吸引力。为了加强和扩大控制理论与生物学和计算机科学等领域之间的互动，控制理论的本科课程将被重新设计，使具有非传统工程背景的学生能够使用控制理论材料的工具。还将开设额外的研究生课程，不仅提供控制理论或通信的各个要素的严格理论背景，而且还为开发跨学科方法和这些方法的应用提供工具。与该项目的研究和教育组成部分紧密结合的是基于交互式网站建设的指导和外展活动。这个组件不仅包括作为开发人员的本科生和研究生，还包括作为研究实验室活跃用户和参与者的K-12学生和教育工作者。该网站将包含有关自动驾驶汽车设计和控制的不同组成部分的科学信息，以及探索控制和通信方法在实验室车辆上的应用的交互式工具。

The use of multiple vehicles for the achievement of a joint taskproduces an operational setting with greater flexibility, robustnessand coverage for a lower cost than is possible with single vehicles orstationary sensing networks. When the operational environment forsuch vehicles is complex, dynamic or contains operational hazards,individual vehicles must have the ability to respond quickly and witha high level of maneuverability. The focus of the work in thisproject is the development and implementation of control theoreticmethods for coordination of groups of agile vehicles coupled throughcommunication and operating in dynamic environments. The need fordevelopment of these methods arises when traditional designmethodologies fail due to the operation of autonomous systems in thepresence of a strong coupling between dynamic information flow andunderlying system dynamics. The work will be primarily driven bychallenges arising in the coordinated control of agile underwatervehicles, however, the results will also have high impact for taskssuch as vision-based reconnaissance with aircraft in hazardous urbanenvironments. The particular combination of agility, dynamic communication andoperational uncertainty requires that the communication andcoordination elements of coordinated control be considered jointlyrather than independently. The objectives of this project are (1)develop a deformable virtual structures approach to cooperativecontrol which simultaneously captures the constraints imposed bylimited communication and by vehicle constraints, and (2) developdynamic communication structures that are sufficient to guaranteestability and coherence of the virtual structure. The group ofvehicles is treated as a virtual, deformable body which is effectivelyunderactuated due to velocity and motion constraints on theconstituent vehicles and the physical constraints necessary tomaintain communication between the vehicles. The constituent vehiclesthen become shape actuators for the evolution and motion planning for this new class of virtual mechanical systems with lumped, dynamic massproperties. The communication structure of the vehicles is assumed tobe dynamic with the transmission connections treated as controlvariables. Construction of communication patterns is addressed viaperiodic sequences chosen using geometric and graph theoretic tools.The governing equations for the resulting virtual structure thendescribe an underactuated mechanical system with both discrete timeactuation and oscillatory dynamics. Analysis and construction offeedback control for such systems is addressed by developing a newnotion of averaging and state feedback. Research targeted to applications and implementation in underwaterautonomous vehicles provides a captivating venue for education at alllevels. The issues arising in such settings have broad theoreticalimplications as well as the appeal of hands-on experience. Tostrengthen and broaden interaction between control theory and fieldssuch as biology and computer science, undergraduate courses in controltheory will be redesigned to make the tools of control theorymaterial accessible to students with non-traditional engineeringbackgrounds. Additional graduate courses will also be developed thatprovide not only a rigorous theoretical background in individualelements of control theory or communications but that also provide tools for developing interdisciplinary methods and application ofthose methods. Closely integrated with the research and educationalcomponents of the project are mentoring and outreach activities basedaround the construction of an interactive web site. This componentinvolves not only undergraduate and graduate students as developers,but K-12 students and educators as active users and participants inthe research lab. The site will contain scientific information aboutthe different components of autonomous vehicle design and control aswell as interactive tools for exploring application of control andcommunication methodologies to lab vehicles.