CAREER: Distributed Multi-vehicle Cooperative Control - A Consensus Theoretical Approach

目标：本职业建议的目标是推导出分布式多车辆协同控制的共识理论框架。重点研究了分布式多车编队聚类和刚体姿态同步问题。虽然共识算法开始出现在合作控制中，但它们通常是简化的或理想的，没有考虑到合作控制问题中的挑战。因此，它们对上述两个问题的适用性是非常有限的。智力优势：本职业计划书的研究计划包括三个重点：(i)分析和设计新颖的、可证明正确的共识算法，并推导出分布式多车编队聚类问题的统一共识架构；（ii）分析和设计新颖的、可证明正确的分布式刚体姿态同步问题的共识算法；（iii）在多车试验台上对分布式算法进行实验验证。该项目中衍生的分布式算法将解决具有固有动力学的参考状态的一致性跟踪，执行器饱和下的一致性，缺乏绝对或相对状态导数测量时的一致性，以及由刚体姿态动力学或欧拉-拉格朗日方程建模的耦合非线性系统的一致性。更广泛的影响：该研究对包括天基干涉测量、环境监测、边境巡逻和搜救在内的应用具有重大影响。PI计划与犹他州水研究实验室合作，将研究成果应用于无人驾驶飞行器小组对陆地表面水文过程的高分辨率遥感。该研究还对生物学、经济学、物理学和计算机科学等领域产生了影响，这些领域普遍存在共识/同步现象。该研究计划将被整合到教育计划中，该教育计划包括大学部和研究生的指导、课程开发、高中推广、研究成果的广泛传播等4个要素。

Objective: The objective of this career proposal is to derive a consensus theoretical framework for distributed multi-vehicle cooperative control. In particular, the proposal focuses on distributed multi-vehicle formation clustering and rigid body attitude synchronization problems. While consensus algorithms start to emerge in cooperative control, they are usually simplified or ideal without accounting for the challenges in cooperative control problems. Therefore, their applicability to the above two problems is very limited.Intellectual Merit: The research plan of this career proposal consists of three thrusts: (i) analysis and design of novel, provably correct consensus algorithms and derivation of a unified consensus architecture for distributed multi-vehicle formation clustering problems, (ii) analysis and design of novel, provably correct consensus algorithms for distributed rigid body attitude synchronization problems, and (iii) experimental validation of the distributed algorithms on a multi-vehicle testbed. The distributed algorithms derived in the project will address consensus tracking of a reference state with inherent dynamics, consensus under actuator saturation, consensus in the absence of absolute or relative state derivative measurements, and consensus of coupled nonlinear systems modeled by rigid body attitude dynamics or Euler-Lagrange equations.Broader Impacts: The research has significant impact on applications including space-based interferometry, environment monitoring, border patrol, and search and rescue. In collaboration with the Utah Water Research Laboratory, the PI plans to apply the research results to high-resolution remote sensing of land surface hydrologic processes by a team of unmanned aerial vehicles. The research also has impact on the fields of biology, economics, physics, and computer science, where the consensus/synchronization phenomenon is ubiquitous. The research plan will be integrated into an education plan that includes four elements, namely, undergraduate and graduate mentoring, curriculum development, outreach to high schools, and broad dissemination of the research results.