Distributed Optimization-Based Control of Multi-Agent Networks in Complex Environments [Paperback]

This book offers a concise and in-depth exposition of specific algorithmic solutions for distributed optimization based control of multi-agent networks and their performance analysis. It synthesizes and analyzes distributed strategies for three collaborative tasks: distributed cooperative optimization, mobile sensor deployment and multi-vehicle formation control. The book integrates miscellaneous ideas and tools from dynamic systems, control theory, graph theory, optimization, game theory and Markov chains to address the particular challenges introduced by such complexities in the environment as topological dynamics, environmental uncertainties, and potential cyber-attack by human adversaries.

The book is written for first- or second-year graduate students in a variety of engineering disciplines, including control, robotics, decision-making, optimization and algorithms and with backgrounds in aerospace engineering, computer science, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and operations research. Researchers in these areas may also find the book useful as a reference.

1. Preliminaries.- 2. Distributed Cooperative Optimization.- 3. Game Theoretic Optimal Sensor Deployment.- 4. Distributed Resilient Formation Control.- Index.- References.

Minghui Zhu is the Dorothy Quiggle Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the Pennsylvania State University. Prior to that, he was a postdoctoral associate in the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received Ph.D. in Engineering Science (Mechanical Engineering) from the University of California, San Diego in 2011. His research interests lie in the design, analysis and control of multi-agent networks with applications in multi-vehicle networks, security and the smart grid. He was the recipient of the Powell fellowship and the Back fellowship at the University of California, San Diego in lcQ