CAREER: Coordinated Control from Deformable Virtual Structures with Dynamic Communication

职业：通过动态通信对可变形虚拟结构进行协调控制

• 批准号: 0238461
• 负责人: Kristi Hill
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Washington
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2003
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2003-02-15 至 2009-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0238461&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Coordinated; Control; Deformable; Virtual

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.

使用多辆车完成一项联合任务产生了比单一车辆或固定传感网络成本更低的灵活性、坚固性和覆盖率更高的操作环境。当这类车辆的运行环境复杂、动态或包含操作危险时，单个车辆必须具有快速反应的能力和高度的机动性。该项目的工作重点是开发和实施控制理论方法，以协调通过通信和在动态环境中操作的敏捷车辆组。当传统的设计方法在动态信息流和基础系统动力学之间存在强耦合的情况下，由于自治系统的运行而失败时，就需要开发这些方法。这项工作将主要由协调控制敏捷水下航行器方面出现的挑战推动，然而，其结果也将对任务产生重大影响，例如在危险的城市环境中使用飞机进行视觉侦察。敏捷性、动态通信和业务不确定性的特殊组合要求将协调控制的通信和协调要素结合起来考虑，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进行协同控制，该方法同时捕获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连贯性的动态通信结构。车辆组被视为一个虚拟的、可变形的物体，由于对组成车辆的速度和运动约束以及保持车辆之间通信所必需的物理约束，该组车辆被有效地欠驱动。然后，组成的车辆成为形状执行器，用于这类具有集中动态质量属性的新型虚拟机械系统的进化和运动规划。假设车辆的通信结构是动态的，变速器连接被视为控制变量。利用几何和图论工具，通过选择周期序列来构造通信模式，得到的虚拟结构的控制方程描述了一个同时具有离散时间激励和振荡动力学的欠驱动机械系统。通过提出平均和状态反馈的新概念，对这类系统的反馈控制进行了分析和构造。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。在这样的背景下产生的问题具有广泛的理论影响以及实践经验的吸引力。为了加强和扩大控制理论与生物和计算机科学等领域之间的互动，控制理论本科课程将进行重新设计，使具有非传统工程背景的学生能够接触到控制理论的工具和材料。还将开发更多的研究生课程，这些课程不仅提供严格的控制理论或通信个别要素的理论背景，而且还提供开发跨学科方法和应用这些方法的工具。指导和外联活动与该项目的研究和教育部分紧密结合，以建设一个互动网站为基础。这一部分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。该网站将包含关于自动驾驶车辆设计和控制的不同组件的科学信息，以及探索控制和通信方法在实验室车辆中应用的互动工具。