CAREER: Coordinated Control from Deformable Virtual Structures with Dynamic Communication

使用多个车辆来实现联合任务产生了一个操作设置，具有更大的灵活性，鲁棒性和覆盖范围，成本低于单个车辆或固定传感网络。 当这种车辆的运行环境是复杂的，动态的或包含操作危险时，单个车辆必须具有快速响应能力和高水平的机动性。 该项目的工作重点是开发和实施控制理论方法，用于协调通过通信耦合并在动态环境中运行的敏捷车辆组。 这些方法的发展需要出现时，传统的设计方法失败，由于在动态信息流和底层系统动力学之间的强耦合存在的自主系统的操作。 这项工作将主要由敏捷水下车辆协调控制中出现的挑战驱动，然而，结果也将对危险城市环境中的飞机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定组合要求协调控制的通信和协调元素被联合考虑而不是独立考虑。 本计画的目标是：（1）发展一种可变形虚拟结构的协同控制方法，以同时捕捉受限通讯与车辆限制所施加的限制;（2）发展动态通讯结构，以充分发挥虚拟结构的稳定性与连贯性。 车辆组被视为一个虚拟的，可变形的身体，这是有效的欠驱动，由于速度和运动的约束上的构成车辆和物理约束，以保持车辆之间的通信。组成vehicles然后成为形状执行器的演变和运动规划这类新的虚拟机械系统的集总，动态massproperties。 假设车辆的通信结构是动态的，将传输连接视为控制变量。 利用几何和图论工具选择周期性序列来构造通信模式，然后用所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。 针对水下航行器应用和实施的研究为各级教育提供了一个迷人的场所。 在这种情况下出现的问题具有广泛的理论意义，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相互作用，控制理论本科课程将重新设计，使非传统工程背景的学生能够使用控制理论材料的工具。 还将开发其他研究生课程，不仅提供控制理论或通信个别要素的严格理论背景，而且还提供开发跨学科方法和应用这些方法的工具。 与该项目的研究和教育组成部分密切结合的是围绕建立一个互动网站开展的辅导和推广活动。 这个组件不仅涉及作为开发人员的本科生和研究生，而且涉及作为研究实验室的积极用户和参与者的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中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.