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Καλησπέρα σε όλους,

Με χαρά σας ανακοινώνουμε ότι την Πέμπτη 15 Μαΐου και ώρα 12.00 στην αίθουσα Γενικών Συνελεύσεων (απέναντι από το ασανσέρ του 9-ορόφου), θα πραγματοποιηθεί εκδήλωση με ομιλητή το καθηγητή John S. Baras, με τίτλο:
"Distributed Learning in Collaborative Control and Decision Making". 

Στη συνέχεια μπορείτε να βρείτε

• την περίληψη της εκδήλωσης
• ένα σύντομο βιογραφικό του ομιλητή

 
   

Speaker: John S. Baras

Lockheed Martin Chair in Systems Engineering
The Institute for Systems Research,
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department,
Fischell Bioengineering Department,
Mechanical Engineering Department, and
Applied Mathematics, Statistics and Scientific Computation Program
University of Maryland College Park, USA
and
Guest Professor
School of Electrical Engineering
and ACESS Linnaeus Centre
Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), SWEDEN

Title: Distributed Learning in Collaborative Control and Decision Making

Abstract:
We consider collaborative decision making and control in multi-agent systems. Learning is an important ingredient in such systems. The emphasis is to derive as simple as possible distributed algorithms that work provably very well, while having minimal knowledge of the system and its parameters; thus the need for distributed learning. When making a decision, an agent is influenced by its knowledge about others’ behaviors. Agents’ understanding of others’ behaviors is shaped through observing their actions over a long time. The agents initially have different behaviors. In order to maximize their pay-off, they need to learn the others’ behavior and coordinate with them. We consider a behavior learning algorithm for a class of behavior functions and study its effects on the emergence of coordination in the network. The conditions under which the learning algorithm converges are studied. Next we consider multi-agent systems, with each agent picking actions from a finite set and receiving a payoff depending on the actions of all agents. The exact form of the payoffs is unknown and only their values can be measured by the respective agents. We develop a decentralized algorithm that leads to the agents picking welfare optimizing actions utilizing the interactions in the payoffs from the agents’ actions, and if needed very simple bit-valued information exchanges between the agents over a directed communication graph. An interaction graph is introduced to encode known interactions in the system. Conditions that guarantee convergence to welfare minimizing actions w.p. 1 are derived under the assumption that the union of the interaction and communication graphs is strongly connected. We next consider the continuous time and continuous state space version of the problem based on ideas from extremum seeking control. A result on local convergence of the proposed algorithm to an arbitrarily small neighborhood of a local minimizer of the welfare function is proved. Our results show how indirect communications (signaling between the agents via their interactions through the system) and direct communications (direct messages sent between the agents) can complement each other and lead to simple distributed control algorithms with remarkably good performance.  Several applications are briefly discussed. We close by describing current and future research directions.

John S. Baras, Lockheed Martin Chair in Systems Engineering

Short bio:
B.S. in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece, 1970; M.S. and Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University 1971, 1973. Since 1973 with the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, and the Applied Mathematics Faculty, at the University of Maryland College Park. Since 2000 faculty member in the Fischell Department of Bioengineering. Since 2014 faculty member in the Mechanical Engineering Department. Founding Director of the Institute for Systems Research (ISR) from 1985 to 1991.  Since 1991, Founding Director of the Maryland Center for Hybrid Networks (HYNET). Since 2013, Guest Professor at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Sweden. Life Fellow of the IEEE, Fellow of the SIAM, and a Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences. Received the 1980 George Axelby Prize from the IEEE Control Systems Society and the 2006 Leonard Abraham Prize from the IEEE Communications Society. Professor Baras' research interests include control, communication and computing systems.

Email: baras@umd.edu    Web page: http://www.isr.umd.edu/~baras/

Κάτι από το site του ομιλητή, που το βρήκα πολύ ενδιαφέρον  :D

NASA center develops 'hot' new technology
Center's research developments include high-tech sensors, wireless security
By Tom Howell Jr.

The Diamondback, April 27, 2005

Sending a human to Mars, waging a successful war and securing wireless communication have something in common — each is an application of technology created at the university’s NASA-supported research center.

The Center for Satellite and Hybrid Communication Networks, founded in November 1991, is bringing the university to the forefront of wireless technology research by developing sensors useful in space exploration and military defense in its labs in and around the A.V. Williams Building.

The sensors, the size of two AA batteries, are portable and can be tossed into strategic places of a battlefield, measuring factors such as enemy tank movement, weather and terrain, said Dion Blazakis, a graduate student and CSHCN researcher.

The center is one of 17 commercial research centers sponsored by NASA. Its team of graduates and undergraduates uses an annual $8.6 million to research wireless satellite networking for NASA and defense divisions such as Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the U.S. Army Research Laboratory. The center also develops technologies for various private companies.

“We’ve made an impact because we work very closely with industry,” said John Baras, the center’s director and an electrical engineering professor. “We have a very unique collaboration.”

The sensors will benefit the military, Blazakis said.

“A soldier will have a PC and get sensory data on demand,” Blazakis said. The center is also developing a smaller, quarter-sized version of the sensor.

The sensors also have applications in outer space, Baras said. Rovers on Mars or the moon can use the sensors to survey conditions and send information back to NASA over satellite networks. This combination of robots and satellites could involve humans as well, monitoring health conditions during a potential mission to Mars, Baras said. Sensors are becoming more important and can be found in cars and aircraft, Baras said.

“Sensors are becoming very hot,” he said. “Universities have huge [sensor] programs now and it’s a quite popular field.”

The center is also developing secure wireless communications. Instead of connecting to a standard hub device in a room, CSHCN’s networks use a set number of cooperating computers. If a computer user in the middle of the chain is not cooperating, the other users will know, said Karl Seamon, a CSHCN research assistant who graduated with a computer science degree last spring. The need for heightened wireless security is necessary because today’s hubs leave unencrypted information vulnerable to hackers, Blazakis said.

“In wireless, you can see everything,” he said.

CSHCN is using mathematics found in biology and physics as models to develop its network technology. The way insects interact and how particles work together can be applied to wireless network building, Baras said.

“There is mathematics behind it,” he said. “There are algorithms we can use in technology.”

CSHCN’s wireless and satellite hybrid systems caught the eye of officials at DirecPC, a computer-based technology that is the offshoot of the widespread DirecTV. DirecPC uses satellites to provide Internet connections based on technology developed at the university.

The center came to the university after it won a competition held by NASA in 1991, Baras said. Universities had to submit a research proposal to acquire a center; this university and Florida Atlantic University were selected to host the center. Since then, CSHCN has provided a valuable experience to its roughly 70 graduate and 15 undergraduate researchers each year, with 15 to 25 of the center’s students getting industry jobs each year, Baras said.

“It’s a better education when it’s not just in the classroom,” Baras said.

Earth-space networks link people around the world
Clipping from flyer on NASA Research Partnership Centers, June 2005 [ PDF version ]

Satellite and ground-based communication - once separate technologies - are now integrated into hybrid networks using telephone,cable, wireless, lnternet and satellite systems to meet communication needs around the world. Voice, data and video information is disseminated at high speeds through these networks.

A pioneer in breaking communications boundaries, the Center for Satellite and Hybrid Communications Networks at the University of Maryland conducts research in its state-of-the-art laboratories and testing center. lnternet over satellites was first established, demonstrated and commercialized by this center, working with Hughes Network Systems engineer. Their work targets hybrid networks, making the different systems operate together seamlessly. The center also develops sensor networks, military and commercial mobile ad hoc networks, network security, networks for health care, space exploration networks for communication and sensing, intelligent optical networks, hybrid RF and optical networks. The Department of Defense is a major partner,along with Telcordia, Lockheed Martin, Boeing,Viasat, IBM and Lucent.

CENTER FOR SATELLITE & HYBRID COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
University of Maryland College Park, Maryland
John Baras, PhD, Director
Tel 301.405.6606 www.isr.umd.edu/CSHCN/

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