Cooperative Control of Multi-Agent Systems: Theory and Applications

DescriptionA comprehensive review of the state of the art in the control of multi-agent systems theory and applicationsThe superiority of multi-agent systems over single agents for the control of unmanned air, water and ground vehicles has been clearly demonstrated in a wide range of application areas. Their large-scale spatial distribution, robustness, high scalability and low cost enable multi-agent systems to achieve tasks that could not successfully be performed by even the most sophisticated single agent systems.Cooperative Control of Multi-Agent Systems: Theory and Applications provides a wide-ranging review of the latest developments in the cooperative control of multi-agent systems theory and applications. The applications described are mainly in the areas of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs). Throughout, the authors link basic theory to multi-agent cooperative control practice — illustrated within the context of highly-realistic scenarios of high-level missions — without losing site of the mathematical background needed to provide performance guarantees under general working conditions. Many of the problems and solutions considered involve combinations of both types of vehicles. Topics explored include target assignment, target tracking, consensus, stochastic game theory-based framework, event-triggered control, topology design and identification, coordination under uncertainty and coverage control.Establishes a bridge between fundamental cooperative control theory and specific problems of interest in a wide range of applications areasIncludes example applications from the fields of space exploration, radiation shielding, site clearance, tracking/classification, surveillance, search-and-rescue and moreFeatures detailed presentations of specific algorithms and application frameworks with relevant commercial and military applicationsProvides a comprehensive look at the latest developments in this rapidly evolving field, while offering informed speculation on future directions for collective control systemsThe use of multi-agent system technologies in both everyday commercial use and national defense is certain to increase tremendously in the years ahead, making this book a valuable resource for researchers, engineers, and applied mathematicians working in systems and controls, as well as advanced undergraduates and graduate students interested in those areas.Table of ContentsList of Contributors xiiiPreface xviiAcknowledgment xixIntroduction 1 – YueWang, Eloy Garcia, David Casbeer and Fumin ZhangIntroduction 1Chapter Summary and Contributions 11Sensor Placement Algorithms for a Path Covering Problem 31 – Sivakumar Rathinam and Rajnikant SharmaProblem Statement 34Algorithm Approx1 35Algorithm Approx2 42Numerical Results 46Conclusions 48Robust Coordination of Small UAVs for Vision-Based Target Tracking Using Output-Feedback MPC with MHE 51 – Steven A. P. Quintero, David A. Copp, and João P. HespanhaVision-Based Target Tracking 53Problem Formulation 58Robust Output-Feedback MPC/MHE 64Simulation Results 67Conclusion and FutureWork 79Projection-Based Consensus for Time-Critical Coordination of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles under Velocity Constraints 85 – XiaofengWang, Eloy Garcia, Zheqing Zhou, Derek Kingston and David CasbeerIntroduction 85Problem Statement 87Projection-Based Consensus Algorithm 89Convergence Analysis 91Convergence Time 96Feasibility 101Simulation 104Summary 110GreedyMaximization for Asset-Based Weapon–Target Assignment with Time-Dependent Rewards 115 – Doo-Hyun Cho and Han-Lim ChoiIntroduction 115Problem Formulation 117Properties of the Objective Function 120Algorithmic Details 126Numerical Case Studies 128Coordinated Threat Assignments and Mission Management of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles 141 – Eloy Garcia and David CasbeerIntroduction 141Problem Statement 144Decentralized Assignment of Threats 148Assignment Constraints 153Multiple Main Targets 163Conclusions 172Event-Triggered Communication and Control for Multi-Agent Average Consensus 177 – Cameron Nowzari, Jorge Cortes and George J. PappasIntroduction 177Preliminaries 181Problem Statement 185Centralized Event-Triggered Control 186Decentralized Event-Triggered Control 188Decentralized Event-Triggered Communication and Control 192Periodic Event-Triggered Coordination 199Conclusions and Future Outlook 201Topology Design and Identification for Dynamic Networks 209 – Chuangchuang Sun and Ran DaiIntroduction 209Network Topology Design Problems 212Network Topology Identification Problems 216Iterative Rank Minimization Approach 221Simulation Examples 224Conclusions 231Distributed Multi-Agent Coordination with Uncertain Interactions: A Probabilistic Perspective 237 – Yongcan Cao, David Casbeer, Eloy Garcia and Corey SchumacherIntroduction 237Preliminaries 239Fixed Interaction Graph 241Switching Interaction Graph 253Awareness Coverage Control in Unknown Environments Using Heterogeneous Multi-Robot Systems 265 – YueWang and LiWangIntroduction 265Problem Formulation 268Cooperative Control of Heterogeneous Multi-Robot Systems 275Simulation Results 284Index 291Author(s) DescriptionYue Wang, PhD is the Warren H. Owen – Duke Energy Assistant Professor of Engineering in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Clemson University, USA. Her research interests include cooperative control and decision-making for multi-agent systems and human-robot interaction.Eloy Garcia is a scientist with InfoSciTex Corp and the Control Science Center of Excellence, USAF Research Laboratory, USA.David Casbeer is a research engineer with the Aerospace Systems Directorate, USAF Research Laboratory, USA.Fumin Zhang, PhD is Associate Professor at the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA.