An integrated approach to the coordinated control of mobile agents

我们关注的是通过相互信息交换进行合作的多个移动对象网络的协作、分布式、容错和可扩展控制，以实现任意数量的目标：实现编队、收集数据、避开障碍物和抵御恶劣环境。我们整合了控制、通信、网络、容错和信号处理等问题，以了解支撑多智能体系统设计的基本问题。我们假设所有的代理已经内部稳定，具有稳定的，可能是非线性的动态。通过在通信受限的媒体上交换有限的状态信息，将它们组织成由规定的代理间相对位置和队形轨迹指定的编队，这是一个实质性的（尽管不是排他的）重点。我们还将考虑由距离定义的阵型，而不是相对位置，主要通过agent间距离测量来组织。这些将作为理解由传感器网络的信号处理目标或无人驾驶车辆的监视任务等更广泛目标驱动的网络组织的基准。拟议的研究应用的更广泛影响包括传感器网络、空中交通管制、无人驾驶车辆的形成、应对灾害的通信网络组织、卫星组织、自动化公路系统和从事合作任务的移动机器人。我们的研究将对我们如何最好地利用这项技术及其应用范围的理解产生根本性的影响。通过培训研究生、开设课程和征聘妇女和少数民族，它将产生重大的教育影响。

0622017DasGuptaIntellectual merit of the proposed researchWe are concerned with the cooperative, distributed, fault tolerant and scalable control of networks of multiple mobile objects that cooperate through mutual information exchange, to achieve any number of objectives: achieve a formation, gather data, avoid obstacles, and withstand hostile environments. We integrate issues from controls, communications, networking, fault tolerance and signal processing to understand the basic issues underpinning multi-agent system design. We assume that all agents have been internally stabilized to have stable, possibly nonlinear dynamics. A substantial though not exclusive, focus will be on organizing them into formations specified by prescribed inter-agent relative positions and formation trajectory, through limited exchange of state information over communication constrained media. We will also consider formations defined by distances, rather than relative positions, organized largely through inter-agent distance measurements. These will serve as benchmarks for understanding network organization driven by such broader objectives as signal processing goals of sensor networks or surveillance missions of unmanned vehicles. Broader impact of the proposed ResearchApplications include sensor networks, air traffic control, formations of unmanned vehicles, organization of communication networks in response to disasters, satellite organization, automated highway systems and mobile robots engaged in cooperative tasks. Our research will have a fundamental impact on our understanding of how this technology can best be utilized and its application scope increased. Through the training of graduate students, development of courses and recruitment of women and minority, it will have a significant educational impact.