题目：Cooperative Control and Optimization in an Uncertain Asynchronous Wireless Networked World

时间：2013年1月7号上午10:00

地点：教九207

Speaker: Christos G. Cassandras

ABSTRACT

Cooperative control arises when a system consists of multiple distributed components (e.g., nodes in a sensor network) that jointly function to meet a system-wide objective, often in an uncertain environment. It involves communication among components which is typically carried out asynchronously, wirelessly, and subject to limitations such as energy or physical constraints in the environment. We will discuss cooperative control and optimization problems that arise when sensor networks are deployed to meet objectives such as maximizing the detection probability of random events in a given region and tracking data sources (possibly mobile) when they are detected. We also address the broader question:  How much communication is needed to achieve optimal cooperation? We show that event-driven, rather than synchronous, communication can guarantee convergence in cooperative distributed schemes while maintaining optimal performance. In dealing with uncertain environments, we will contrast a new “hedge-and-react” approach to traditional “estimate-and-plan” techniques, and apply it to stochastic multi-traveling-salesmen types of problems. The presentation will include interactive software demonstrations and applications to cooperative settings that involve teams of small wireless robots in a laboratory environment.

BIOSKETCH of Christos G. Cassandras

Christos G. Cassandras is Head of the Division of Systems Engineering and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Boston University. He is also co-founder of Boston University’s Center for Information and Systems Engineering (CISE). He received degrees from Yale University (B.S., 1977), Stanford University (M.S.E.E., 1978), and Harvard University (S.M., 1979; Ph.D., 1982). In 1982-84 he was with ITP Boston, Inc. where he worked on the design of automated manufacturing systems. In 1984-1996 he was a faculty member at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Massachusetts/Amherst. He specializes in the areas of discrete event and hybrid systems, stochastic optimization, and computer simulation, with applications to computer and sensor networks, manufacturing systems, and transportation systems. He has published over 300 refereed papers in these areas, and five books. He has guest-edited several technical journal issues and serves on several journal Editorial Boards. He has recently collaborated with The MathWorks, Inc. in the development of the discrete event and hybrid system simulator SimEvents.
Dr. Cassandras was Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control from 1998 through 2009 and has also served as Editor for Technical Notes and Correspondence and Associate Editor. He is the 2012 President of the IEEE Control Systems Society (CSS) and has served as Vice President for Publications and on the Board of Governors of the CSS. He has chaired the CSS Technical Committee on Control Theory, and served as Chair of several conferences. He has been a plenary speaker at many international conferences, including the American Control Conference in 2001 and the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control in 2002, and an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer.
He is the recipient of several awards, including the 2011 IEEE Control Systems Technology Award, the Distinguished Member Award of the IEEE Control Systems Society (2006), the 1999 Harold Chestnut Prize (IFAC Best Control Engineering Textbook) for Discrete Event Systems: Modeling and Performance Analysis, a 2011 prize for the IBM/IEEE Smarter Planet Challenge competition, a 1991 Lilly Fellowship and a 2012 Kern Fellowship. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Tau Beta Pi. He is also a Fellow of the IEEE and a Fellow of the IFAC.