PRECISE Seminar: Co-Regulation of Cyber and Physical Resources in Controllers for Single- and Multi-Agent Unmanned Aircraft Systems

Onboard resources continue to be stretched to maximize performance while accommodating more advanced algorithms. Computation, communication, and control resources must be carefully allocated to achieve mission objectives. Traditionally, this allocation is fixed and designed for worst-case anticipated conditions despite the dynamic environment in which it operates. To address this, I have developed a strategy for co-designing single and multi-agent controllers that co-regulate cyber and physical effectors corresponding to system needs and performance. Single-agent controllers dynamically adjust control task rate period alongside yaw, pitch, and roll of the multicopter in response to holistic system performance. Multi-agent controllers extend this to dynamically adjust communication task rates and position of each agent in response to convergence performance in a cooperative consensus controller. Results demonstrate this hybrid approach can achieve improved control performance, compared with event-triggered strategies, while dynamically allocating resources where traditional time-triggered systems cannot. As a result, with the same onboard resources, thie means more learning, more image processing, more planning, more autonomy while maintaining the same, or better, system performance.