ABSTRACT 

A unifying optimization-based framework will be presented which encompasses most commonly encountered cooperative multi-agent system problems, including coverage control and consensus. Within this framework, we will address the optimal dynamic formation problem in mobile leader-follower networks where an optimal formation is generated to maximize a given objective function while continuously preserving connectivity. In a convex mission space, the connectivity constraints can be satisfied by any feasible solution to a mixed integer nonlinear optimization problem (MINLP). For the class of optimal formation problems where the objective is to maximize coverage, we show that the optimal formation is a tree which can be efficiently constructed without solving a MINLP. In a mission space constrained by obstacles, a minimum-effort reconfiguration approach for the formation will be presented which still optimizes the objective function while avoiding the obstacles and ensuring connectivity. Examples based on simulation as well as laboratory experiments with mobile robots will be presented illustrating this dynamic formation process. Finally, we will address the question of developing decentralized control methods for cooperative multi-agent systems. 

BIOSKETCH of Christos G. Cassandras 

Christos G. Cassandras is Distinguished Professor of Engineering at Boston University. He is Head of the Division of Systems Engineering, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and co-founder of Boston University’s Center for Information and Systems Engineering (CISE). He received degrees from Yale University (B.S., 1977), Stanford University (M.S.E.E., 1978), and Harvard University (S.M., 1979; Ph.D., 1982). In 1982-84 he was with ITP Boston, Inc. where he worked on the design of automated manufacturing systems. In 1984-1996 he was a 

faculty member at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Massachusetts/Amherst. He specializes in the areas of discrete event and hybrid systems, cooperative control, stochastic optimization, and computer simulation, with applications to computer and sensor networks, manufacturing systems, and transportation systems. He has published over 380 refereed papers in these areas, and five books. He has guest-edited several technical journal issues and serves on several journal Editorial Boards. In addition to his academic activities, he has worked extensively with industrial organizations on various systems integration projects and the development of decision-support software. He has most recently collaborated with The MathWorks, Inc. in the development of the discrete event and hybrid system simulator SimEvents. 

Dr. Cassandras was Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control from 1998 through 2009 and has also served as Editor for Technical Notes and Correspondence and Associate Editor. He is currently an Editor of Automatica. He was the 2012 President of the IEEE Control Systems Society (CSS). He has also served as Vice President for Publications and on the Board of Governors of the CSS, as well as on several IEEE committees, and has chaired several conferences. He has been a plenary/keynote speaker at numerous international conferences, including the American Control Conference in 2001 and the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control in 2002, and has also been an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer. 

He is the recipient of several awards, including the 2011 IEEE Control Systems Technology Award, the Distinguished Member Award of the IEEE Control Systems Society (2006), the 1999 Harold Chestnut Prize (IFAC Best Control Engineering Textbook) for Discrete Event Systems: Modeling and Performance Analysis, a 2011 prize and a 2014 prize for the IBM/IEEE Smarter Planet Challenge competition (for a “Smart Parking” system and for the analytical engine of the Street Bump system respectively), the 2014 Engineering Distinguished Scholar Award at Boston University, several honorary professorships, a 1991 Lilly Fellowship and a 2012 Kern Fellowship. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Tau Beta Pi. He is also a Fellow of the IEEE and a Fellow of the IFAC.