Project description
Controlling emergent behaviours of robot swarms
Robot swarms are sensitive to imperfections, making it challenging to design and control them. Even tiny imperfections can amplify across large numbers of robots, undermining their overall performance. Imperfections may also lead to complex emergent behaviours, such as intricate trajectory patterns. The ERC-funded iSwarm project proposes a new approach to control emergent behaviours. Instead of suppressing imperfections, the idea is to embrace and use them as novel distributed control inputs. This requires a fresh perspective on analysing algorithms and integrating robots for multi-agent systems, focusing on the intersection of algebraic graph theory, network theory, control, and mechatronics. Ultimately, a framework to evaluate emergent behaviours with imperfect inputs will be developed.
Objective
Robot swarms are incredibly fragile against imperfections. World-class roboticists agree that one of the fundamental challenges in robotics is on the availability of systematic methods with formal guarantees for the design and control of the swarm's force multiplication, where sensing, actuation, and communication are distributed in space. However, no matter the approach, control theory, or heuristic, tiny imperfections are amplified throughout large numbers of robots and rapidly erode and make unpredictable the overall performance of the swarm. Notwithstanding, imperfections can result in surprising complex emergent behaviors such as intricate trajectory patterns of mobile robot swarms.
iSwarm questions the current paradigm of fighting imperfections to suppress their “damaging” effects. Conversely, I propose a rigorous control theory to unleash and ally with imperfections, such as dropouts, delays, and scaling/biasing factors in sensors and actuators, as novel distributed control inputs for taming emergent behaviors. My paradigm shift requires new ways of analyzing algorithms and their robot integration at the crossroads between algebraic graph theory, network theory, control, and mechatronics for multi-agent systems.
To achieve the project's goal, I will: 1) develop a general formulation to characterize the controllability/stabilizability of emergent behaviors with imperfections as inputs; 2) introduce unconventional strategies such as the mismatched Lyapunov functions to engineer emergent behaviors; 3) construct equivalence principles between imperfections and inconsistent shared information to improve the effectiveness of the swarm’s “collective awareness” for fault-recovery algorithms; and 4) demonstrate the control of a state-of-the-art robot swarm in non-lab conditions by exploiting robot imperfections.
iSwarm regards imperfections as part of the solution, will inspire innovative research methods and lead new applications of multi-robot systems.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology mechanical engineering mechatronics
- engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering electronic engineering sensors
- engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering electronic engineering robotics
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2022-STG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
18071 GRANADA
Spain
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.