Robotics Institute Seminar,
March 31, 2006
Time and Place | Seminar Abstract | Speaker Biography | Speaker Appointments
Distributed Estimation and
Control of Multi-Agent Systems
Kevin
Lynch
Laboratory for Intelligent Mechanical Systems
Northwestern University
Mauldin
Auditorium (NSH 1305)
Refreshments 3:15 pm
Talk 3:30 pm
Abstract |
We are pursuing a framework for
systematic design of emergent behaviors in sensing and communication networks
of mobile agents. The problem is to
design a control law to run on each agent, based on sensor and communication
input, so that the desired collective behavior emerges. Example tasks include sensor coverage,
formation control, multi-agent pursuer-evader, and other types of self-organization. The key constraints are that each agent may
have significant dynamics and limited sensing, computation, motion, and communication
capabilities. The behavior of the system should improve or degrade gracefully
as agents are added or deleted; in other words, the approach should be
scalable, robust, and require no central controller.
Our
approach requires each agent to simultaneously (1) estimate properties of the
global behavior of the system and (2) use those estimates in a motion control
law. This suggests a systematic approach
of separately designing the estimator and controller, and then ensuring that
the coupled system retains desired performance properties. I will give an example applying this
framework to swarm formation control, where the desired formation is described
by inertial moments. Implementing a
simple gradient control law on each agent, the coupled estimation and control
system is globally convergent to the desired family of formations.
Speaker Biography |
Kevin Lynch was a member of Carnegie Mellon's first class of
robotics Ph.D. students. After
graduation in 1996 he spent a year as a postdoctoral fellow at the AIST
Mechanical Engineering Laboratory in
Speaker Appointments |
For
appointments, please contact Jean Harpley (jean@cs.cmu.edu).
The Robotics Institute is part of the School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University.