Sonia Martinez, Jorge Cortes, Francesco Bullo
12/31/2005 09:00 AM
Applied Mathematics & Statistics
Motion coordination is a remarkable phenomenon in biological systems and an extremely useful tool in man-made groups of vehicles, mobile sensors and embedded robotic systems. Just like animals do, groups of mobile autonomous agents need the ability to deploy over a given region, assume a specified pattern, rendezvous at a common point, or jointly move in a synchronized manner. These coordination tasks are typically to be achieved with little available communication between the agents, and therefore, with limited information about the state of the entire system. The objective of this paper is to illustrate ways in which systems theory helps us analyze emergent behaviors in animal groups and design autonomous and reliable robotic networks. We present and survey some recently-developed theoretical tools for modeling, analysis and design of motion coordination.
