19-1- T4.03-3451

 Coordination and Control of Swarms of Space Vehicles

 Provably Convergent Game-Theoretic Coordination for Space Vehicle Swarms

Name:  ASTER Labs, Inc.

Name:  The Regents of the University of Minnesota

Street:  155 East Owasso Lane

Street:  200 Oak Street S.E.

City:  Shoreview

City:  Minneapolis

State/Zip:  MN 55126-3034

State/Zip:  MN 55455-2020

PHONE:  (651) 484-2084

PHONE:  (612) 226-0258

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) :
Begin: 2
End: 3

Technical Abstract (Limit 2000 characters, approximately 200 words)

This program will develop a communication-less solution to decentralized control and task coordination for multi-agent systems (MAS). Reducing the operational burden of MAS swarms on human operators will greatly improve the capability of spacecraft constellations and distant planetary explorations. The proposed solution would guide the MAS towards a cost minimized set of actions by performing gradient descent on Game Theory models for individual agents. In this setup, convergence is achieved when the MAS reaches a Nash equilibrium. Game Theory models are commonly found in nature and can be expressed as traditional optimization problems. The novel algorithmic solution will be executed on each agent’s processor in a MAS in order to observe the local environment and other nearby agents. The local algorithms will be derived from online and stochastic optimization methods. Convergence to the Nash equilibrium will be proved under conditions of noisy and uncertain observations, including the case of communication-less coordination. Precise, non-asymptotic convergence bounds will be proved. Multiple game models will be designed for different coordination tasks, system architectures, and hardware.

Potential NASA Applications (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)

The developed communication-less coordination and control applies to NASA's ongoing development of MAS that operate in close proximity to one another. This includes future solutions such as the Mars Helicopter or JPL’s PUFFER robots. The primary goal is to provide a software framework that uses shared potential functions, game models, and individual observations to facilitate communication-less, or very limited communication for coordination between agents in a MAS. The swarming MAS would be composed of homogeneous agents.

Potential Non-NASA Applications (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)

Non-NASA applications for this technology include integration into a variety of multi-agent autonomous vehicle systems. This includes applications such as precision agriculture UAVs, LEO communication satellite constellations and mine or industrial site inspection. Non-NASA government applications include UAVs and ground vehicles for defense and surveillance as well as search and rescue.

Duration: 13