Seminar Details
2014-10-21 (14.00) : Getting multi-agent systems to cooperate
At Euler building (A002)
Organized by Mathematical Engineering
Speaker :
Luca Schenato (University of Padova)
Abstract :
Getting large scale autonomous multi-agent systems to cooperatively perform tasks is a formidable challenge. A key issue is robustness, since systemic failures can result from component failure for poorly designed cooperation schemes. There is an emerging view that multi-layered architectures, where each layer builds upon few primitive functions from lower layers can provide correct-by-construction robustness guarantees. I will show how many applications which require cooperation, ranging from multi-sensor calibration to networked clock synchronization, from multi-camera perimeter patrolling to multi-robot map building, can be solved via the consensus algorithm, a "primitive" function for which there exists very robust and provably correct implementations. I will close by sharing some personal views about research challenges in the control of large scale networks.