Analysis and Control of Multi-Agent Systems

Lecturer	Dr. Daniel Zelazo Dr. Paolo Robuffo Giordano

Office hours TBD.

Lecture time and place (3h lecture + 1h exercise)

Monday,	11.30-13.00 h,	V 9.32
Thursday,	11.30-13.00 h,	V 9.22
First meeting:		Thursday, 12. April 2012, 11.30 h

Content

Multi-agent systems are systems composed of multiple interacting dynamic units. These units can be used to perform team objectives with applications ranging from formation flying to distributed computation. Challenges associated with these systems are their analysis and synthesis, arising due to their decoupled, distributed, large-scale nature, and due to limited inter-agent sensing/communication capabilities. This course provides an introduction to these systems via tools from graph theory and dynamic systems theory. The course will also cover real-world applications by presenting recent results obtained in the distributed formation control of real multi-robot systems.

• Introduction to graph theory
• Consensus protocol and its variations
• Synthesis of multi-agent systems
• Review of passivity theory and port-Hamiltonian systems
• Port-Hamiltonian control for generic mechanical systems
• Applications: formation control of multi-robot systems
• Final project and presentation

Prerequisites: Regelungstechnik 1 and 2, Systemdynamische Grundlagen der Regelungstechnik, Einfuehrung in die Regelungstechnik, or equivalent lectures.

The course is given in English.