Recent Research in Cooperative Control of Multi-Vehicle Systems

Richard M. Murray
Control and Dynamical Systems
California Institute of Technology

Submitted, ASME Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control
Special issue on the "Analysis and Control of Multi Agent Dynamic Systems"
May 2006

Abstract

This paper presents a survey of recent research in cooperative control of multi-vehicle systems, using a common mathematical framework to allow different methods to be compared to each other. The survey has three primary parts: an overview of current applications of cooperative control, an summary of some of the key technical approaches that have been explored, and a description of some possible future directions for research. The articles that are used as a basis for this survey have been chosen in part based on their citation frequency and hence represent some of the seminal papers in the field.

Note: this page contains links to most (hopefully all) of the papers used for the review and is intended as a working document for the preparation of the article. A copy of the submitted version of the article will be posted here when it is available.

Technology Overview

Formation Control

Keeping a set of vehicles in a formation, including swarms and string stability

• Designing Control Laws for Cooperative Agent Teams, Lynne E. Parker. Proceedings, IEEE Conference on Robotics and Automation, 1993. 78 citations
  • One of the very early papers on formation control
  • Discusses local versus global knowledge; distributed control
  • Pretty high level, with some examples (experiments?) but not much data

Cooperative Tasking/Resource Allocation

• Co-ordination and Control of Multiple UAVs, A. Richards, J. Bellingham, M. Tillerson and J. How. AIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control Conference and Exhibit, 2002. 59 citations
  • Task allocation and motion planning using the MILP framework

• Multi-Vehicle Cooperative Control Using Mixed Integer Linear Programming, M. G. Earl and R. D'Andrea. Submitted, IEEE Transactions on Automatica Control, 2005. 6 citations.
  • Centralized solution to N-on-M game using MILP. Good references.
  • Reference this paper along with J. How work.