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GRASP Seminar Series: Fall 2005
October 21, 11:00 AM, 307 Levine Hall
John Baras
University of Maryland
“Collaborative Networked Control: Stochastic Algorithms”
Abstract: We consider the problem of collaborative networked vehicle control. We address development and analysis of distributed autonomous coordination of vehicles that are trying to accomplish a specific goal (objective), while at the same time avoiding collisions with each other, avoiding obstacles and avoiding moving opponents that can destroy them. We develop a formulation as a Markov Random Field control problem and develop several algorithms for achieving coordination based on local interactions alone. Distributed self-organization of autonomous vehicles is achieved through a parallel implementation of Gibbs samplers-based simulated annealing. The impact of the Gibbs potential functions on the convergence speed is also investigated, which provides insight into the design of these functions. We demonstrate convergence of the algorithms in specific instances and demonstrate avoidance of local optima. We discuss the challenges posed by the dynamic nature of the underlying graph in the convergence analysis of the full parallel algorithm.
Biography: John Baras received the B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece in 1970, and the M.S. and Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University in 1971 and 1973. Professor Baras was the founding Director of the Institute for Systems Research (one of the first six NSF Engineering Research Centers) from 1985 to 1991. Since August 1973 he has been with the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, and the Applied Mathematics Faculty, at the University of Maryland, College Park, where he is currently a Professor holding a permanent joint appointment with the ISR. In February 1990 he was appointed to the Lockheed Martin Chair in Systems Engineering. Since 1991 Dr. Baras has been the Director of the Center for Hybrid and Satellite Communication Networks (a NASA Commercial Space Center). Professor Baras was the initial principal architect of the ISR M.S. program in Systems Engineering. More recently Dr. Baras has been heavily involved in the development of new core courses for systems engineering. His efforts address the often emphasized need for a new integrative approach to engineering (holistic rather than in parts), which in turn addresses the needs for modular design, systems thinking and team work.
Among his awards are the Outstanding Paper Award of the IEEE Control Systems Society (1980); Alan Berman Research Publication Awards from NRL (1978, 1983 and 1993); Outstanding Invention of the Year Awards from the University of Maryland (1991, 1994); Mancur Olson Research Achievement Award from the University of Maryland, College Park (1998); Best Paper Award at the 23rd Army Science Conference, Orlando, Florida (2002); and Best Paper Award, Wireless Security Conference (2004). Dr. Baras is a Fellow of the IEEE.
Professor Baras' research interests include control, communication and computing systems.
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