NeTS: Synergy: Collaborative Research: Controlling Teams of Autonomous Mobile Beamformers

本研究的目标是开发一种新的框架来控制移动机器人团队，以波束形成方式合作，在多个源-目的地对之间传输信息，同时满足服务质量约束和消耗最小功率。该项目的方法确保了在具有挑战性的环境中，如在传输高速数据（如视频或图像）或在没有视线的环境中产生的强大通信和使用寿命。与不考虑移动性的静态系统相比，它还可以显著提高性能。本研究的智力价值在于开发了移动波束形成器的网络物理系统，其中机器人轨迹和速度的物理空间构成了无线通信网络空间的输入，反之亦然。所产生的离散和连续动力学以及不同时间尺度的集成需要从控制理论、无线网络、分布式优化和混合控制等方面综合新的理论结果。该网络物理系统结合了以下相互关联的目标：移动波束形成器的分布式控制；节点选择、分组和运动调度；丰富的交流空间模式；平台部署和验证。这项研究的成功完成将为促进移动自主系统的设计和促进其采用提供这些必要的组件。这种系统的广泛可用性可以对诸如搜索、救援和恢复行动、国土安全环境监测或监视和侦察任务产生重大的社会影响。该项目的更广泛影响在于在产业界和学术界传播研究成果。

The goal of this research is to develop a new framework to control teams of mobile robots, cooperating in a beamforming fashion, to transmit information between multiple source-destination pairs, while meeting quality-of-service constraints and consuming minimum power. The approach of this project ensures robust communications and longevity in challenging environments, arising during the transmission of high-rate data, such as video or images, or in environments where there is no line-of-sight. It also allows significant performance gains compared to static systems that do not consider mobility.The intellectual merit of this research lies in the development of a cyber-physical system of mobile beamformers, where the physical space of robot trajectories and velocities constitutes an input to the cyber space of wireless communications, and vise versa. Integration of the resulting discrete and continuous dynamics and different time scales requires the synthesis of new theoretical results drawing from control theory, wireless networking, distributed optimization, and hybrid control. This cyber-physical system combines the following interrelated objectives: Distributed control of mobile beamformers; Node selection, grouping and motion scheduling; Rich models of the communication space; Platform deployment and validation.Successful completion of this research will provide these necessary components in facilitating the design of mobile autonomous systems and fostering their adoption. Wide availability of such systems can have a significant societal impact on, e.g., search, rescue and recovery operations, environmental monitoring for homeland security, or surveillance and reconnaissance missions. The broader impact of this project lies on disseminating the research output in the industry and academia.