Multi-agent systems with localized objectives

在越来越广泛的情况下，出现了关于多个实体合作以实现全球目标的问题，例如，由被设计为自主行动的代理（例如高速公路上的汽车）的交互引起，或者由根据网络系统范例从头开始构建的系统（例如无人驾驶汽车（uav）或拍卖系统）引起。沿着而来的是这种系统必须完成的各种任务的增加。虽然大多数分散控制的现存工作集中在有关代理的问题有部分信息的合奏状态，这种新的景观强调需要开发新的控制理论方法，使合奏的目标的突出作用。本研究的目标是开发新的结果和算法，以满足这一需求，在所谓的“多智能体系统与本地化的目标”的背景下。因此，这里采用的观点的新颖性在于信息的处理：除了对代理人关于其他代理人状态的可用信息的限制之外，我们在分析中整合了对整个系统的全局目标的可用信息的限制。智力MeritThis研究项目将提供新的，系统的方法，多代理系统的设计和分析，每个代理只知道一部分的整体的全球目标。为此，将在控制设计与计算抽象代数、代数拓扑等应用数学的各个领域之间建立新的联系。更广泛的影响本研究计划的成功完成将提供工具，使分散控制律的设计与本地化目标，并促进其在现实世界的系统，如车辆或电力网络的形成传播和采用。该研究计划将融合来自不同工程学科的工具，并将利用来自各种实验来源的数据/问题。此外，它的实施将涉及整个工程领域的本科生和研究生。

Problems concerning the cooperation of multiple entities seeking to achieve a global objective appear in an increasingly broader variety of situations, for instance arising from the interaction of agents that were designed to act autonomously (such as cars on a highway), or from systems built from the ground up according to the networked systems paradigm (such as uav's (unmanned autonomous vehicles) or auction systems). Along with this comes an increase in the variety of tasks such systems have to accomplish. While most of the extant work in decentralized control focuses on issues relating to agents having partial information about the state of the ensemble, this new landscape underscores the need to develop new control theoretic methods that give the objective of the ensemble a prominent role. The goal of this research is to develop new results and algorithms to address this need, within the context of what is termed 'multi-agent systems with localized objectives'. The novelty of the point of view adopted here thus lies in the handling of information: beyond restrictions on the information available to the agents about the state of other agents, we integrate in the analysis restrictions on the information available about the global objective of the system as whole. Intellectual MeritThis research project will provide novel, systematic methods for the design and analysis of multi-agent systems where each agent knows only part of the global objective of the ensemble. To this end, new connections will be established between control design and various areas of applied mathematics such as computational abstract algebra and algebraic topology.Broader impactsThe successful completion of this research program will provide tools that enable the design of decentralized control laws with localized objectives and foster their dissemination and adoption in real-world systems such as formations of vehicles or power networks. This research plan will blend tools from different engineering disciplines and will draw on data/problems stemming from a variety of experimental origins. Its implementation will moreover involve undergraduate and graduate students from across the spectrum of engineering.