Title
Synthesis and analysis of distributed ensemble control strategies for allocation to multiple tasks.
Abstract
We present the synthesis and analysis of distributed ensemble control policies to enable a team of robots to control their distribution across a collection of tasks. We assume that individual robot controllers are modeled as a sequential composition of individual task controllers. A macroscopic description of the team dynamics is then used to synthesize ensemble feedback control strategies that maintain the desired distribution of robots across the tasks. We present a distributed implementation of the ensemble feedback strategy that can be implemented with minimal communication requirements. Different from existing strategies, the approach results in individual robot control policies that maintain the desired mean and the variance of the robot populations at each task. We present the stability properties of the ensemble feedback strategy, verify the feasibility of the distributed ensemble controller through high-fidelity simulations, and examine the robustness of the strategy to sensing and/or actuation failures. Specifically, we consider the case when robots are subject to estimation and navigation errors resulting from lossy inter-agent wireless communication links and localization errors.
Year
DOI
Venue
2014
10.1017/S0263574713000994
ROBOTICA
Keywords
DocType
Volume
DARS2012,Swarm robotics,Multi-robot systems,Mobile robots,Automation
Journal
32
Issue
ISSN
Citations 
SP2
0263-5747
6
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.56
9
2
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
T. William Mather1252.47
M. Ani Hsieh238234.69