Distributed optimal transport for the deployment of swarms

Vishaal Krishnan and Sonia Martínez
Proceedings of the 57th IEEE Int. Conf. Decision and Miami, FL, USA, December 2018

Abstract:

The analysis and design of scalable distributed algorithms for spatial deployment is an important problem in the area of multi-robot systems. For very large swarms, this can be prescribed via macroscopic objectives on the behavior of the swarm, and accomplished by local sensing and communication between agents. In this paper, we address the problem of distributed optimal transport, with the aim of minimizing the cost of deployment of large swarms. Working with a macroscopic PDE model of swarms given by the continuity equation, we first formulate a general deployment objective, and formulate deployment algorithms as convergent gradient flows. Then, we design and analyze a novel Laplacian-based distributed algorithm and a corresponding weighted gradient flow for optimal transport. We conclude the manuscript with simulations that illustrate our results..

File: main.pdf

Bib-tex entry:

@InProceedings{VK-SM:18-cdc,
author = {V. Krishnan and S. Mart{\'\i}nez},
title = {Distributed optimal transport for the deployment of swarms},
booktitle = {57th IEEE International Conference on Decision and Control},
pages = {4583--4588},
year = {2018},
address = {Miami, FL, USA},
month = {December}
}