Control of Multi-Robot Systems

Scope: This module presents some methods for analysis and control of multi-robot systems.

Audience: This 3-credits module is part of Elective in Robotics, a 4-module course offered to students of the Master in "Artificial Intelligence and Robotics" at Sapienza University of Rome. It can also be taken by students of the Master in "Control Engineering" as one of the two modules of Control Problems in Robotics. Finally, it may also taken as the second module of the course Control of Autonomous Multi-Agent Systems.

Detailed contents: Examples of applications of multi-robot systems. Centralized vs. decentralized architectures. Elements of graph theory. Connectivity and Consensus; Passivity and Lyapunov stability; Interconnection of mechanical systems. Application to multi-UAV systems: Formation control with time-varying topology; Formation control with connectivity maintenance; Steady-state behaviors; Overview of other multi robot problems.

Prerequisites: The module has no formal prerequisites. However, familiarity with basic concepts of automatic control and robotics is strongly recommended.

ECTS credits for this module: 3 credits

Schedule: 16/04/2020-26/05/2020, Tuesday 14:00-16:00 Thursday 14:00-17:00. THE COURSE IS NOW OVER.

Lectures: lectures will be in streaming on Google Meet, link: https://meet.google.com/aet-orjr-pzq

Course material:

Introduction

Elements of Graph Theory, Consensus and Rigidity

Passivity

Port-Hamiltonian modeling

Formation control

Cooperative localization and other multi-robot problems

Swarm robotics (guest lecture by Vito Trianni)

Exam material:

Description of projects

List of projects

List of research articles