October 31, 2016

Iterative Control for Networked Heterogeneous Multi-Agent Systems with Uncertainties

Abstract: This talk discusses the convergence of iterative control for networked, heterogeneous multi-agent systems, where each agent has potentially different dynamics and uncertainties. Such control can be important in adhesively bonding for manufacturing or repair of large high-strength (carbon-fiber) composite structures such as aircraft wing or wind turbines. Substructures near the bonding area tend to change the thermal dynamics, and iterative control of the distributed heaters offers a potential solution to achieve the desired temperature profiles in the bondline. However, the challenge is to ensure convergence of such iterative control especially since convergence of iterative control for each individual sub-system (heaters) does not guarantee convergence under a networked setting. Towards addressing such problems, this talk will review convergence conditions for a single linear system, and then quantify the acceptable modeling uncertainty for ensuring convergence of the proposed iterative approach for collaborative tracking. Convergence conditions are also established for the case when inversion-based iterative control of each individual agent are conjoined using a network graph structure.

Bio: Dr. Santosh Devasia received the B.Tech. (Hons) from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India, in 1988, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1990 and 1993 respectively. He is currently the Associate Dean of Research and Faculty Affairs in the College of Engineering and a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Washington (UW), Seattle where he joined in 2000 after teaching from 1994 to 2000 in the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City. He is also the Associate Director of the Boeing Advanced Research Center (BARC) http://www.me.washington.edu/BARC at UW. He has served as an Associate Editor for the ASME Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement and Control and the IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology. He is a fellow of ASME. His current research interests include: (a) human-machine interactions for increasingly autonomous systems with applications such as active prosthesis and confined-space-manufacturing robotics; and (b) novel actuators such as soft cilia for bio-applications such as mixing and separation.
Additional details of current efforts can be found at: http://faculty.washington.edu/devasia/