Special Topics in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering: Collective Intelligence: Dynamics and Control of Multi-Agent Systems

This course covers mathematical models and methods for analysis and design of decentralized dynamics of multi-agent systems, with applicability to systems ranging from multi-robot teams to animal aggregations. Collective intelligence will be defined as achievable performance of the system, as compared to that of agents on their own, in activities such as decision-making among options and monitoring or search of a spatially distributed resource. Rigorous approaches will be explored for analyzing and leveraging the influence on system dynamics of information exchange, coordination, and cooperation.