Distributed Coordination Theory for Robot Teams

Distributed Coordination Theory for Robot Teams develops control algorithms to coordinate the motion of autonomous teams of robots in order to achieve some desired collective goal. It provides novel solutions to foundational coordination problems, including distributed algorithms to make quadrotor helicopters rendezvous and to make ground vehicles move in formation along circles or straight lines. The majority of the algorithms presented in this book can be implemented using on-board cameras.

The book begins with an introduction to coordination problems, such as rendezvous of flying robots, and modelling. It then provides a solid theoretical background in basic stability, graph theory and control primitives. The book discusses the algorithmic solutions for numerous distributed control problems, focusing primarily on flying robotics and kinematic unicycles. Finally, the book looks to the future, and suggests areas discussed which could be pursued in further research.

This book will provide practitioners, researchers and students in the field of control and robotics new insights in distributed multi-agent systems.

Ashton Roza received the Bachelor of Applied Science (BASc) degree in Electrical Engineering in 2010 from the University of Waterloo, Canada. He received the Master of Applied Science (MASc) degree in 2012 and the PhD degree in 2019, both from the Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Toronto, Canada. His research focuses on the application of nonlinear control and geometric methods to coordination in networks of autonomous robots. He has published papers in the IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control and IEEE Transactions on Control of Networked Systems.

Manfredi Maggiore was born in Genoa, Italy. He received the "Laurea" degree in Electronic Engineering in 1996 from the University of Genoa and the PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from the Ohio State University, USA, in 2000. Since 2000 he has been with the Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Toronto, Canada, where he is currently Professor. He has been a visiting Professor at the University of Bologna (2007-2008), and the Laboratoire des Signaux et Systèmes, Ecole CentraleSupélec (2015-2016, 2017, 2018). His research focuses on mathematical nonlinear control, and relies on methods from dynamical systems theory and differential geometry. In 2018, he won the Faculty Teaching Award at the University of Toronto. Dr. Maggiore has co-authored two books with Wiley and Springer. He is Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology and Control Engineering Practice.

Luca Scardovi received the Laurea degree and Ph.D. degree in Electronic and Computer Engineering from the University of Genoa, Italy, in 2001 and 2005 respectively. He held research associate positions at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Liège, Belgium (2005-2007) and at the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University (2007-2009). From 2009 to 2011 he was an Assistant Professor at the Technische Universität München, Munich, Germany. Since 2011 he has been with the Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Toronto, Canada, where he is currently Associate Professor. In 2018 he was a Visiting Scientist at the Biocore Institute at INRIA Sophia Antipolis, France, and a Visiting Professor at the University of Cagliari, Italy. His research interests focus on dynamical systems with special emphasis in the analysis and control of emergent dynamics in networked dynamical systems. He is an Associate Editor for the journals Systems & Control Letters and IEEE Control Systems Letters.