"Decentralized Regulation, Tracking, and Disturbance Rejection for Multi-agent Systems: A Targeting Approach"

本研究涉及多智能体系统的控制，即由多个相互作用的子系统组成的系统。我们关注通过影响系统代理的单独控制代理引入控制的问题。这种类型的社会经济系统的例子包括试图控制人群的警察（其中系统代理人是人群中的人，控制代理人是军官），指挥车辆领域的军事领导人（其中系统代理人是车辆，控制代理人是领导者），以及试图诱使公司采用“绿色”技术的环保主义者（其中系统代理人是公司，控制代理人是活动家）。这种类型的技术系统的例子包括分布式能源系统，其中成千上万的小型电源，而不是少数大型电源，连接到电网（其中系统代理是发电机，控制代理是电压/相位/功率控制器）和自动交通系统（其中系统代理是交通灯，控制代理是交通控制器）。原则上，所有这些系统都可以进行数学建模，并且可以为控制代理设计控制规则。由于所讨论的系统的复杂性，分散的框架很有吸引力。然而，即使是去中心化的控制器，在设计和实际部署上也会很快变得极其复杂。我们的目标是通过使用我们开发的一种称为目标的新方法来处理这种复杂性，其中每个控制代理都将注意力集中在一个精心选择的系统代理上。本研究的主要贡献在于，基于现有知识和通过本提案创建的知识，使用严格的理论来确定应该使用多少控制代理，它们应该放置在哪里，它们各自的目标应该是什么，以及应该使用什么控制信号来成功控制所有系统代理。目前，这类信息往往缺乏科学依据，因此只能依靠直觉或经验。共有10名研究生将获得部分资助。

This research deals with the control of multi-agent systems, that is, systems that are composed of multiple interacting subsystems. We focus on problems in which control is introduced through separate control agents that influence the system agents. Examples of socio-economic systems of this type include police officers trying to control a crowd (where the system agents are people in the crowd and the control agents are officers), military leaders directing a field of vehicles (where the system agents are vehicles and the control agents are leaders), and environmentalists trying to entice companies to adopt "green" technology (where the system agents are companies and the control agents are activists). Examples of technological systems of this type include distributed energy systems, in which thousands of small sources of electricity, rather than a few large ones, are connected to the power grid (where the system agents are generators and the control agents are voltage/phase/power controllers) and automated traffic systems (where the system agents are traffic lights and the control agents are traffic controllers). All of these systems can, in principle, be modelled mathematically and control rules for the control agents can be devised. Due to the complexity of the systems in question, a decentralized framework is appealing. However, even decentralized controllers can quickly become overwhelmingly complicated to design and, in practice, to deploy. We aim to deal with this complexity by using a new approach we have developed called targeting, wherein each of the control agents focuses attention on a single, carefully chosen, system agent. The major contribution of this research is that rigorous theory, based on both existing knowledge and the knowledge created through this proposal, is used to determine how many control agents should be used, where they should be placed, what their respective targets should be, and what control signals should be used to successfully control all of the system agents. At present, such information is often unavailable scientifically, leading to dependence on intuition or experience alone. A total of 10 graduate students will be partially supported through this funding.