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Koopman operator theory has proven to be highly significant in system identification, even for challenging scenarios involving nonlinear time-varying systems (NTVS). In this context, we examine a network of connected agents, each with limited observation capabilities, aiming to estimate the dynamics of an NTVS collaboratively. Drawing inspiration from Koopman operator theory, deep neural networks, and distributed consensus, we introduce a distributed algorithm for deep Koopman learning of the dynamics of an NTVS. This approach enables individual agents to approximate the entire dynamics despite having access to only partial state observations. We guarantee consensus not only on the estimated dynamics but also on its structure, i.e., the matrices encountered in the linear equation of the lifted Koopman system. We provide theoretical insights into the convergence of the learning process and accompanying numerical simulations.

Zero-shot coordination (ZSC) is a significant challenge in multi-agent collaboration, aiming to develop agents that can coordinate with unseen partners they have not encountered before. Recent cutting-edge ZSC methods have primarily focused on two-player video games such as OverCooked!2 and Hanabi. In this paper, we extend the scope of ZSC research to the multi-drone cooperative pursuit scenario, exploring how to construct a drone agent capable of coordinating with multiple unseen partners to capture multiple evaders. We propose a novel Hypergraphic Open-ended Learning Algorithm (HOLA-Drone) that continuously adapts the learning objective based on our hypergraphic-form game modeling, aiming to improve cooperative abilities with multiple unknown drone teammates. To empirically verify the effectiveness of HOLA-Drone, we build two different unseen drone teammate pools to evaluate their performance in coordination with various unseen partners. The experimental results demonstrate that HOLA-Drone outperforms the baseline methods in coordination with unseen drone teammates. Furthermore, real-world experiments validate the feasibility of HOLA-Drone in physical systems. Videos can be found on the project homepage~\url{https://sites.google.com/view/hola-drone}., Comment: 10 pages

This paper investigates a distributed optimization problem under edge agreements, where each agent in the network is also subject to local convex constraints. Generalized from the concept of consensus, a group of edge agreements represents the constraints defined for neighboring agents, with each pair of neighboring agents required to satisfy one edge agreement constraint. Edge agreements are defined locally to allow more flexibility than a global consensus, enabling heterogeneous coordination within the network. This paper proposes a discrete-time algorithm to solve such problems, providing a theoretical analysis to prove its convergence. Additionally, this paper illustrates the connection between the theory of distributed optimization under edge agreements and distributed model predictive control through a distributed battery network energy management problem. This approach enables a new perspective to formulate and solve network control and optimization problems.

This paper proposes a data-driven framework to learn a finite-dimensional approximation of a Koopman operator for approximating the state evolution of a dynamical system under noisy observations. To this end, our proposed solution has two main advantages. First, the proposed method only requires the measurement noise to be bounded. Second, the proposed method modifies the existing deep Koopman operator formulations by characterizing the effect of the measurement noise on the Koopman operator learning and then mitigating it by updating the tunable parameter of the observable functions of the Koopman operator, making it easy to implement. The performance of the proposed method is demonstrated on several standard benchmarks. We further compare the presented method with similar methods proposed in the latest literature on Koopman learning.

This paper presents an integrated control strategy for optimal fast charging and active thermal management of Lithium-ion batteries in extreme ambient temperatures, striking a balance between charging speed and battery health. A control-oriented thermal-NDC (nonlinear double-capacitor) battery model is proposed to describe the electrical and thermal dynamics, incorporating the effects of both an active thermal source and ambient temperature. A state-feedback model predictive control algorithm is then developed for optimal fast charging and active thermal management. Numerical experiments validate the algorithm under extreme temperatures, showing that the proposed algorithm can energy-efficiently adjust the battery temperature, thereby balancing charging speed and battery health. Additionally, an output-feedback model predictive control algorithm with an extended Kalman filter is proposed for battery charging when states are partially measurable. Numerical experiments validate the effectiveness under extreme temperatures.

In this paper, we discuss the development and deployment of a robust autonomous system capable of performing various tasks in the maritime domain under unknown dynamic conditions. We investigate a data-driven approach based on modular design for ease of transfer of autonomy across different maritime surface vessel platforms. The data-driven approach alleviates issues related to a priori identification of system models that may become deficient under evolving system behaviors or shifting, unanticipated, environmental influences. Our proposed learning-based platform comprises a deep Koopman system model and a change point detector that provides guidance on domain shifts prompting relearning under severe exogenous and endogenous perturbations. Motion control of the autonomous system is achieved via an optimal controller design. The Koopman linearized model naturally lends itself to a linear-quadratic regulator (LQR) control design. We propose the C3D control architecture Cascade Control with Change Point Detection and Deep Koopman Learning. The framework is verified in station keeping task on an ASV in both simulation and real experiments. The approach achieved at least 13.9 percent improvement in mean distance error in all test cases compared to the methods that do not consider system changes., Comment: This work has been submitted to the IEEE for possible publication. Copyright may be transferred without notice, after which this version may no longer be accessible

This study introduces an approach to obtain a neighboring extremal optimal control (NEOC) solution for a closed-loop optimal control problem, applicable to a wide array of nonlinear systems and not necessarily quadratic performance indices. The approach involves investigating the variation incurred in the functional form of a known closed-loop optimal control law due to small, known parameter variations in the system equations or the performance index. The NEOC solution can formally be obtained by solving a linear partial differential equation, akin to those encountered in the iterative solution of a nonlinear Hamilton-Jacobi equation. Motivated by numerical procedures for solving these latter equations, we also propose a numerical algorithm based on the Galerkin algorithm, leveraging the use of basis functions to solve the underlying Hamilton-Jacobi equation of the original optimal control problem. The proposed approach simplifies the NEOC problem by reducing it to the solution of a simple set of linear equations, thereby eliminating the need for a full re-solution of the adjusted optimal control problem. Furthermore, the variation to the optimal performance index can be obtained as a function of both the system state and small changes in parameters, allowing the determination of the adjustment to an optimal control law given a small adjustment of parameters in the system or the performance index. Moreover, in order to handle large known parameter perturbations, we propose a homotopic approach that breaks down the single calculation of NEOC into a finite set of multiple steps. Finally, the validity of the claims and theory is supported by theoretical analysis and numerical simulations.

Multi-armed bandit algorithms provide solutions for sequential decision-making where learning takes place by interacting with the environment. In this work, we model a distributed optimization problem as a multi-agent kernelized multi-armed bandit problem with a heterogeneous reward setting. In this setup, the agents collaboratively aim to maximize a global objective function which is an average of local objective functions. The agents can access only bandit feedback (noisy reward) obtained from the associated unknown local function with a small norm in reproducing kernel Hilbert space (RKHS). We present a fully decentralized algorithm, Multi-agent IGP-UCB (MA-IGP-UCB), which achieves a sub-linear regret bound for popular classes for kernels while preserving privacy. It does not necessitate the agents to share their actions, rewards, or estimates of their local function. In the proposed approach, the agents sample their individual local functions in a way that benefits the whole network by utilizing a running consensus to estimate the upper confidence bound on the global function. Furthermore, we propose an extension, Multi-agent Delayed IGP-UCB (MAD-IGP-UCB) algorithm, which reduces the dependence of the regret bound on the number of agents in the network. It provides improved performance by utilizing a delay in the estimation update step at the cost of more communication.

This paper provides a solution to the problem of safe region formation control with reference velocity tracking for a second-order multi-agent system without velocity measurements. Safe region formation control is a control problem where the agents are expected to attain the desired formation while reaching the target region and simultaneously ensuring collision and obstacle avoidance. To tackle this control problem, we break it down into two distinct objectives: safety and region formation control, to provide a completely distributed algorithm. Region formation control is modeled as a high-level abstract objective, whereas safety and actuator saturation are modeled as a low-level objective designed independently, without any knowledge of the former, and being minimally invasive. Our approach incorporates connectivity preservation, actuator saturation, safety considerations, and lack of velocity measurement from other agents with second-order system dynamics which are important constraints in practical applications. Both internal safety for collision avoidance among agents and external safety for avoiding unsafe regions are ensured using exponential control barrier functions. We provide theoretical results for asymptotic convergence and numerical simulation to show the approach's effectiveness.

Generalized from the concept of consensus, this paper considers a group of edge agreements, i.e. constraints defined for neighboring agents, in which each pair of neighboring agents is required to satisfy one edge agreement constraint. Edge agreements are defined locally to allow more flexibility than a global consensus. This work formulates a multi-agent optimization problem under edge agreements and proposes a continuous-time distributed algorithm to solve it. Both analytical proof and numerical examples are provided to validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

This paper develops a policy learning method for tuning a pre-trained policy to adapt to additional tasks without altering the original task. A method named Adaptive Policy Gradient (APG) is proposed in this paper, which combines Bellman's principle of optimality with the policy gradient approach to improve the convergence rate. This paper provides theoretical analysis which guarantees the convergence rate and sample complexity of $\mathcal{O}(1/T)$ and $\mathcal{O}(1/\epsilon)$, respectively, where $T$ denotes the number of iterations and $\epsilon$ denotes the accuracy of the resulting stationary policy. Furthermore, several challenging numerical simulations, including cartpole, lunar lander, and robot arm, are provided to show that APG obtains similar performance compared to existing deterministic policy gradient methods while utilizing much less data and converging at a faster rate.

This paper proposes a policy learning algorithm based on the Koopman operator theory and policy gradient approach, which seeks to approximate an unknown dynamical system and search for optimal policy simultaneously, using the observations gathered through interaction with the environment. The proposed algorithm has two innovations: first, it introduces the so-called deep Koopman representation into the policy gradient to achieve a linear approximation of the unknown dynamical system, all with the purpose of improving data efficiency; second, the accumulated errors for long-term tasks induced by approximating system dynamics are avoided by applying Bellman's principle of optimality. Furthermore, a theoretical analysis is provided to prove the asymptotic convergence of the proposed algorithm and characterize the corresponding sampling complexity. These conclusions are also supported by simulations on several challenging benchmark environments.

This paper proposes a data-driven, iterative approach for inverse optimal control (IOC), which aims to learn the objective function of a nonlinear optimal control system given its states and inputs. The approach solves the IOC problem in a challenging situation when the system dynamics is unknown. The key idea of the proposed approach comes from the deep Koopman representation of the unknown system, which employs a deep neural network to represent observables for the Koopman operator. By assuming the objective function to be learned is parameterized as a linear combination of features with unknown weights, the proposed approach for IOC is able to achieve a Koopman representation of the unknown dynamics and the unknown weights in objective function together. Simulation is provided to verify the proposed approach.

Solving a collision-aware multi-agent mission planning (task allocation and path finding) problem is challenging due to the requirement of real-time computational performance, scalability, and capability of handling static/dynamic obstacles and tasks in a cluttered environment. This paper proposes a distributed real-time (on the order of millisecond) algorithm DrMaMP, which partitions the entire unassigned task set into subsets via approximation and decomposes the original problem into several single-agent mission planning problems. This paper presents experiments with dynamic obstacles and tasks and conducts optimality and scalability comparisons with an existing method, where DrMaMP outperforms the existing method in both indices. Finally, this paper analyzes the computational burden of DrMaMP which is consistent with the observations from comparisons, and presents the optimality gap in small-size problems.

Designing control inputs for a system that involves dynamical responses in multiple timescales is nontrivial. This paper proposes a parameterized time-warping function to enable a non-uniformly sampling along a prediction horizon given some parameters. The horizon should capture the responses under faster dynamics in the near future and preview the impact from slower dynamics in the distant future. Then a variable sampling MPC (VS-MPC) strategy is proposed to jointly determine optimal control and sampling parameters at each timestamp. VS-MPC adapts how it samples along the horizon and determines optimal control accordingly at each timestamp without offline tuning or trial and error. A numerical example of a wind farm battery energy storage system is also provided to demonstrate that VS-MPC outperforms the uniform sampling MPC.

This paper presents a data-driven approach to approximate the dynamics of a nonlinear time-varying system (NTVS) by a linear time-varying system (LTVS), which is resulted from the Koopman operator and deep neural networks. Analysis of the approximation error between states of the NTVS and the resulting LTVS is presented. Simulations on a representative NTVS show that the proposed method achieves small approximation errors, even when the system changes rapidly. Furthermore, simulations in an example of quadcopters demonstrate the computational efficiency of the proposed approach.

This paper investigates the problem of cooperative tuning of multi-agent optimal control systems, where a network of agents (i.e. multiple coupled optimal control systems) adjusts parameters in their dynamics, objective functions, or controllers in a coordinated way to minimize the sum of their loss functions. Different from classical techniques for tuning parameters in a controller, we allow tunable parameters appearing in both the system dynamics and the objective functions of each agent. A framework is developed to allow all agents to reach a consensus on the tunable parameter, which minimizes team loss. The key idea of the proposed algorithm rests on the integration of consensus-based distributed optimization for a multi-agent system and a gradient generator capturing the optimal performance as a function of the parameter in the feedback loop tuning the parameter for each agent. Both theoretical results and simulations for a synchronous multi-agent rendezvous problem are provided to validate the proposed method for cooperative tuning of multi-agent optimal control.

This paper proposes a new approach that enables multi-agent systems to achieve resilient \textit{constrained} consensus in the presence of Byzantine attacks, in contrast to existing literature that is only applicable to \textit{unconstrained} resilient consensus problems. The key enabler for our approach is a new device called a \textit{$(\gamma_i,\alpha_i)$-resilient convex combination}, which allows normal agents in the network to utilize their locally available information to automatically isolate the impact of the Byzantine agents. Such a resilient convex combination is computable through linear programming, whose complexity scales well with the size of the overall system. By applying this new device to multi-agent systems, we introduce network and constraint redundancy conditions under which resilient constrained consensus can be achieved with an exponential convergence rate. We also provide insights on the design of a network such that the redundancy conditions are satisfied. Finally, numerical simulations and an example of safe multi-agent learning are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed results., Comment: 15 pages

Inspired and underpinned by the idea of integral feedback, a distributed constant gain algorithm is proposed for multi-agent networks to solve convex optimization problems with local linear constraints. Assuming agent interactions are modeled by an undirected graph, the algorithm is capable of achieving the optimum solution with an exponential convergence rate. Furthermore, inherited from the beneficial integral feedback, the proposed algorithm has attractive requirements on communication bandwidth and good robustness against disturbance. Both analytical proof and numerical simulations are provided to validate the effectiveness of the proposed distributed algorithms in solving constrained optimization problems., Comment: 12 pages

We propose a Safe Pontryagin Differentiable Programming (Safe PDP) methodology, which establishes a theoretical and algorithmic framework to solve a broad class of safety-critical learning and control tasks -- problems that require the guarantee of safety constraint satisfaction at any stage of the learning and control progress. In the spirit of interior-point methods, Safe PDP handles different types of system constraints on states and inputs by incorporating them into the cost or loss through barrier functions. We prove three fundamentals of the proposed Safe PDP: first, both the solution and its gradient in the backward pass can be approximated by solving their more efficient unconstrained counterparts; second, the approximation for both the solution and its gradient can be controlled for arbitrary accuracy by a barrier parameter; and third, importantly, all intermediate results throughout the approximation and optimization strictly respect the constraints, thus guaranteeing safety throughout the entire learning and control process. We demonstrate the capabilities of Safe PDP in solving various safety-critical tasks, including safe policy optimization, safe motion planning, and learning MPCs from demonstrations, on different challenging systems such as 6-DoF maneuvering quadrotor and 6-DoF rocket powered landing., Comment: This paper has been accepted by NeurIPS 2021

This paper considers the multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) problem for a networked (peer-to-peer) system in the presence of Byzantine agents. We build on an existing distributed $Q$-learning algorithm, and allow certain agents in the network to behave in an arbitrary and adversarial manner (as captured by the Byzantine attack model). Under the proposed algorithm, if the network topology is $(2F+1)$-robust and up to $F$ Byzantine agents exist in the neighborhood of each regular agent, we establish the almost sure convergence of all regular agents' value functions to the neighborhood of the optimal value function of all regular agents. For each state, if the optimal $Q$-values of all regular agents corresponding to different actions are sufficiently separated, our approach allows each regular agent to learn the optimal policy for all regular agents.

This paper proposes a novel approach that enables a robot to learn an objective function incrementally from human directional corrections. Existing methods learn from human magnitude corrections; since a human needs to carefully choose the magnitude of each correction, those methods can easily lead to over-corrections and learning inefficiency. The proposed method only requires human directional corrections -- corrections that only indicate the direction of an input change without indicating its magnitude. We only assume that each correction, regardless of its magnitude, points in a direction that improves the robot's current motion relative to an unknown objective function. The allowable corrections satisfying this assumption account for half of the input space, as opposed to the magnitude corrections which have to lie in a shrinking level set. For each directional correction, the proposed method updates the estimate of the objective function based on a cutting plane method, which has a geometric interpretation. We have established theoretical results to show the convergence of the learning process. The proposed method has been tested in numerical examples, a user study on two human-robot games, and a real-world quadrotor experiment. The results confirm the convergence of the proposed method and further show that the method is significantly more effective (higher success rate), efficient/effortless (less human corrections needed), and potentially more accessible (fewer early wasted trials) than the state-of-the-art robot learning frameworks., Comment: This is a preprint. The published version can be accessed at IEEE Transactions on Robotics

This paper proposes an inverse optimal control method which enables a robot to incrementally learn a control objective function from a collection of trajectory segments. By saying incrementally, it means that the collection of trajectory segments is enlarged because additional segments are provided as time evolves. The unknown objective function is parameterized as a weighted sum of features with unknown weights. Each trajectory segment is a small snippet of optimal trajectory. The proposed method shows that each trajectory segment, if informative, can pose a linear constraint to the unknown weights, thus, the objective function can be learned by incrementally incorporating all informative segments. Effectiveness of the method is shown on a simulated 2-link robot arm and a 6-DoF maneuvering quadrotor system, in each of which only small demonstration segments are available.

This paper develops the method of Continuous Pontryagin Differentiable Programming (Continuous PDP), which enables a robot to learn an objective function from a few sparsely demonstrated keyframes. The keyframes, labeled with some time stamps, are the desired task-space outputs, which a robot is expected to follow sequentially. The time stamps of the keyframes can be different from the time of the robot's actual execution. The method jointly finds an objective function and a time-warping function such that the robot's resulting trajectory sequentially follows the keyframes with minimal discrepancy loss. The Continuous PDP minimizes the discrepancy loss using projected gradient descent, by efficiently solving the gradient of the robot trajectory with respect to the unknown parameters. The method is first evaluated on a simulated robot arm and then applied to a 6-DoF quadrotor to learn an objective function for motion planning in unmodeled environments. The results show the efficiency of the method, its ability to handle time misalignment between keyframes and robot execution, and the generalization of objective learning into unseen motion conditions., Comment: This is a preprint. The published version can be accessed at IEEE Transactions on Robotics

This paper develops an approach to learn a policy of a dynamical system that is guaranteed to be both provably safe and goal-reaching. Here, the safety means that a policy must not drive the state of the system to any unsafe region, while the goal-reaching requires the trajectory of the controlled system asymptotically converges to a goal region (a generalization of stability). We obtain the safe and goal-reaching policy by jointly learning two additional certificate functions: a barrier function that guarantees the safety and a developed Lyapunov-like function to fulfill the goal-reaching requirement, both of which are represented by neural networks. We show the effectiveness of the method to learn both safe and goal-reaching policies on various systems, including pendulums, cart-poles, and UAVs.

Motivated by the fact that intelligent traffic control systems have become inevitable demand to cope with the risk of traffic congestion in urban areas, this paper develops a distributed control strategy for urban traffic networks. Since these networks contain a large number of roads having different directions, each of them can be described as a multi-agent system. Thus, a coordination among traffic flows is required to optimize the operation of the overall network. In order to determine control decisions, we describe the objective of improving traffic conditions as a constrained optimization problem with respect to downstream traffic flows. By applying the gradient projection method and the minimal polynomial of a matrix pair, we propose algorithms that allow each road cell to determine its control decision corresponding to the optimal solution while using only its local information. The effectiveness of our proposed algorithms is validated by numerical simulations.

This paper develops a Pontryagin Differentiable Programming (PDP) methodology, which establishes a unified framework to solve a broad class of learning and control tasks. The PDP distinguishes from existing methods by two novel techniques: first, we differentiate through Pontryagin's Maximum Principle, and this allows to obtain the analytical derivative of a trajectory with respect to tunable parameters within an optimal control system, enabling end-to-end learning of dynamics, policies, or/and control objective functions; and second, we propose an auxiliary control system in the backward pass of the PDP framework, and the output of this auxiliary control system is the analytical derivative of the original system's trajectory with respect to the parameters, which can be iteratively solved using standard control tools. We investigate three learning modes of the PDP: inverse reinforcement learning, system identification, and control/planning. We demonstrate the capability of the PDP in each learning mode on different high-dimensional systems, including multi-link robot arm, 6-DoF maneuvering quadrotor, and 6-DoF rocket powered landing., Comment: Published in NeurIPS 2020, Codes are at https://github.com/wanxinjin/Pontryagin-Differentiable-Programming

A set of about 80 researchers, practitioners, and federal agency program managers participated in the NSF-sponsored Grand Challenges in Resilience Workshop held on Purdue campus on March 19-21, 2019. The workshop was divided into three themes: resilience in cyber, cyber-physical, and socio-technical systems. About 30 attendees in all participated in the discussions of cyber resilience. This article brings out the substantive parts of the challenges and solution approaches that were identified in the cyber resilience theme. In this article, we put forward the substantial challenges in cyber resilience in a few representative application domains and outline foundational solutions to address these challenges. These solutions fall into two broad themes: resilience-by-design and resilience-by-reaction. We use examples of autonomous systems as the application drivers motivating cyber resilience. We focus on some autonomous systems in the near horizon (autonomous ground and aerial vehicles) and also a little more distant (autonomous rescue and relief). For resilience-by-design, we focus on design methods in software that are needed for our cyber systems to be resilient. In contrast, for resilience-by-reaction, we discuss how to make systems resilient by responding, reconfiguring, or recovering at runtime when failures happen. We also discuss the notion of adaptive execution to improve resilience, execution transparently and adaptively among available execution platforms (mobile/embedded, edge, and cloud). For each of the two themes, we survey the current state, and the desired state and ways to get there. We conclude the paper by looking at the research challenges we will have to solve in the short and the mid-term to make the vision of resilient autonomous systems a reality.

Cyberphysical systems (CPS) are ubiquitous in our personal and professional lives, and they promise to dramatically improve micro-communities (e.g., urban farms, hospitals), macro-communities (e.g., cities and metropolises), urban structures (e.g., smart homes and cars), and living structures (e.g., human bodies, synthetic genomes). The question that we address in this article pertains to designing these CPS systems to be resilient-from-the-ground-up, and through progressive learning, resilient-by-reaction. An optimally designed system is resilient to both unique attacks and recurrent attacks, the latter with a lower overhead. Overall, the notion of resilience can be thought of in the light of three main sources of lack of resilience, as follows: exogenous factors, such as natural variations and attack scenarios; mismatch between engineered designs and exogenous factors ranging from DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attacks or other cybersecurity nightmares, so called "black swan" events, disabling critical services of the municipal electrical grids and other connected infrastructures, data breaches, and network failures; and the fragility of engineered designs themselves encompassing bugs, human-computer interactions (HCI), and the overall complexity of real-world systems. In the paper, our focus is on design and deployment innovations that are broadly applicable across a range of CPS application areas., Comment: 36 pages, 2 figures, NSF-supported workshop on Grand Challenges in Resilience, held at Purdue, March 20-21, 2019

This paper investigates the stability of distance-based \textit{flexible} undirected formations in the plane. Without rigidity, there exists a set of connected shapes for given distance constraints, which is called the ambit. We show that a flexible formation can lose its flexibility, or equivalently may reduce the degrees of freedom of its ambit, if a small disturbance is introduced in the range sensor of the agents. The stability of the disturbed equilibrium can be characterized by analyzing the eigenvalues of the linearized augmented error system. Unlike infinitesimally rigid formations, the disturbed desired equilibrium can be turned unstable regardless of how small the disturbance is. We finally present two examples of how to exploit these disturbances as design parameters. The first example shows how to combine rigid and flexible formations such that some of the agents can move freely in the desired and locally stable ambit. The second example shows how to achieve a specific shape with fewer edges than the necessary for the standard controller in rigid formations., Comment: To appear CDC 2018, 6 pages

Consider a set of vectors in $\mathbb{R}^n$, partitioned into two classes: normal vectors and malicious vectors. The number of malicious vectors is bounded but their identities are unknown. The paper provides a way for achieving a resilient convex combination, which is a convex combination of only normal vectors. Compared with existing approaches based on Tverberg points, the proposed method based on the intersection of convex hulls has lower computational complexity. Simulations suggest that the proposed method can be applied to resilience for consensus-based distributed algorithms against Byzantine attacks., Comment: Version 2

This article develops a methodology that enables learning an objective function of an optimal control system from incomplete trajectory observations. The objective function is assumed to be a weighted sum of features (or basis functions) with unknown weights, and the observed data is a segment of a trajectory of system states and inputs. The proposed technique introduces the concept of the recovery matrix to establish the relationship between any available segment of the trajectory and the weights of given candidate features. The rank of the recovery matrix indicates whether a subset of relevant features can be found among the candidate features and the corresponding weights can be learned from the segment data. The recovery matrix can be obtained iteratively and its rank non-decreasing property shows that additional observations may contribute to the objective learning. Based on the recovery matrix, a method for using incomplete trajectory observations to learn the weights of selected features is established, and an incremental inverse optimal control algorithm is developed by automatically finding the minimal required observation. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated on a linear quadratic regulator system and a simulated robot manipulator., Comment: Codes: https://github.com/wanxinjin/IOC-from-Incomplete-Trajectory-Observations

This paper proposes a double-layered framework (or form of network) to integrate two mechanisms, termed consensus and conservation, achieving distributed solution of a linear equation. The multi-agent framework considered in the paper is composed of clusters (which serve as a form of aggregating agent) and each cluster consists of a sub-network of agents. By achieving consensus and conservation through agent-agent communications in the same cluster and cluster-cluster communications, distributed algorithms are devised for agents to cooperatively achieve a solution to the overall linear equation. These algorithms outperform existing consensus-based algorithms, including but not limited to the following aspects: first, each agent does not have to know as much as a complete row or column of the overall equation; second, each agent only needs to control as few as two scalar states when the number of clusters and the number of agents are sufficiently large; third, the dimensions of agents' states in the proposed algorithms do not have to be the same (while in contrast, algorithms based on the idea of standard consensus inherently require all agents' states to be of the same dimension). Both analytical proof and simulation results are provided to validate exponential convergence of the proposed distributed algorithms in solving linear equations.

A distributed discrete-time algorithm is proposed for multi-agent networks to achieve a common least squares solution of a group of linear equations, in which each agent only knows some of the equations and is only able to receive information from its nearby neighbors. For fixed, connected, and undirected networks, the proposed discrete-time algorithm results in each agents solution estimate to converging exponentially fast to the same least squares solution. Moreover, the convergence does not require careful choices of time-varying small step sizes.

This paper proposes distributed algorithms for multi-agent networks to achieve a solution in finite time to a linear equation $Ax=b$ where $A$ has full row rank, and with the minimum $l_1$-norm in the underdetermined case (where $A$ has more columns than rows). The underlying network is assumed to be undirected and fixed, and an analytical proof is provided for the proposed algorithm to drive all agents' individual states to converge to a common value, viz a solution of $Ax=b$, which is the minimum $l_1$-norm solution in the underdetermined case. Numerical simulations are also provided as validation of the proposed algorithms.

By the distributed averaging problem is meant the problem of computing the average value of a set of numbers possessed by the agents in a distributed network using only communication between neighboring agents. Gossiping is a well-known approach to the problem which seeks to iteratively arrive at a solution by allowing each agent to interchange information with at most one neighbor at each iterative step. Crafting a gossiping protocol which accomplishes this is challenging because gossiping is an inherently collaborative process which can lead to deadlocks unless careful precautions are taken to ensure that it does not. Many gossiping protocols are request-based which means simply that a gossip between two agents will occur whenever one of the two agents accepts a request to gossip placed by the other. In this paper, we present three deterministic request-based protocols. We show by example that the first can deadlock. The second is guaranteed to avoid deadlocks and requires fewer transmissions per iteration than standard broadcast-based distributed averaging protocols by exploiting the idea of local ordering together with the notion of an agent's neighbor queue; the protocol requires the simplest queue updates, which provides an in-depth understanding of how local ordering and queue updates avoid deadlocks. It is shown that a third protocol which uses a slightly more complicated queue update rule can lead to significantly faster convergence; a worst case bound on convergence rate is provided.

Recently a distributed algorithm has been proposed for multi-agent networks to solve a system of linear algebraic equations, by assuming each agent only knows part of the system and is able to communicate with nearest neighbors to update their local solutions. This paper investigates how the network topology impacts exponential convergence of the proposed algorithm. It is found that networks with higher mean degree, smaller diameter, and homogeneous degree distribution tend to achieve faster convergence. Both analytical and numerical results are provided.

The paper develops a technique for solving a linear equation $Ax=b$ with a square and nonsingular matrix $A$, using a decentralized gradient algorithm. In the language of control theory, there are $n$ agents, each storing at time $t$ an $n$-vector, call it $x_i(t)$, and a graphical structure associating with each agent a vertex of a fixed, undirected and connected but otherwise arbitrary graph $\mathcal G$ with vertex set and edge set $\mathcal V$ and $\mathcal E$ respectively. We provide differential equation update laws for the $x_i$ with the property that each $x_i$ converges to the solution of the linear equation exponentially fast. The equation for $x_i$ includes additive terms weighting those $x_j$ for which vertices in $\mathcal G$ corresponding to the $i$-th and $j$-th agents are adjacent. The results are extended to the case where $A$ is not square but has full row rank, and bounds are given on the convergence rate., Comment: 10 pages

By an undirected rigid formation of mobile autonomous agents is meant a formation based on graph rigidity in which each pair of "neighboring" agents is responsible for maintaining a prescribed target distance between them. In a recent paper a systematic method was proposed for devising gradient control laws for asymptotically stabilizing a large class of rigid, undirected formations in two dimensional space assuming all agents are described by kinematic point models. The aim of this paper is to explain what happens to such formations if neighboring agents have slightly different understandings of what the desired distance between them is supposed to be or equivalently if neighboring agents have differing estimates of what the actual distance between them is. In either case, what one would expect would be a gradual distortion of the formation from its target shape as discrepancies in desired or sensed distances increase. While this is observed for the gradient laws in question, something else quite unexpected happens at the same time. It is shown that for any rigidity-based, undirected formation of this type which is comprised of three or more agents, that if some neighboring agents have slightly different understandings of what the desired distances between them are suppose to be, then almost for certain, the trajectory of the resulting distorted but rigid formation will converge exponentially fast to a closed circular orbit in two-dimensional space which is traversed periodically at a constant angular speed., Comment: 42pages

A distributed algorithm is described for solving a linear algebraic equation of the form $Ax=b$ assuming the equation has at least one solution. The equation is simultaneously solved by $m$ agents assuming each agent knows only a subset of the rows of the partitioned matrix $(A,b)$, the current estimates of the equation's solution generated by its neighbors, and nothing more. Each agent recursively updates its estimate by utilizing the current estimates generated by each of its neighbors. Neighbor relations are characterized by a time-dependent directed graph $\mathbb{N}(t)$ whose vertices correspond to agents and whose arcs depict neighbor relations. It is shown that for any matrix $A$ for which the equation has a solution and any sequence of "repeatedly jointly strongly connected graphs" $\mathbb{N}(t)$, $t=1,2,\ldots$, the algorithm causes all agents' estimates to converge exponentially fast to the same solution to $Ax=b$. It is also shown that the neighbor graph sequence must actually be repeatedly jointly strongly connected if exponential convergence is to be assured. A worst case convergence rate bound is derived for the case when $Ax=b$ has a unique solution. It is demonstrated that with minor modification, the algorithm can track the solution to $Ax = b$, even if $A$ and $b$ are changing with time, provided the rates of change of $A$ and $b$ are sufficiently small. It is also shown that in the absence of communication delays, exponential convergence to a solution occurs even if the times at which each agent updates its estimates are not synchronized with the update times of its neighbors. A modification of the algorithm is outlined which enables it to obtain a least squares solution to $Ax=b$ in a distributed manner, even if $Ax=b$ does not have a solution., Comment: 45pages, 1 figure