This course covers the foundation and principles of multi-robot systems. The course will cover the development of the field and provide an overview of different control architectures (centralized, decentralized, distributed, and hybrid), control topologies, and system configurations (cellular automata, modular robotic systems, mobile sensor networks, swarms, heterogeneous systems). Topics may include, but are not limited to, multi-robot control and connectivity, path planning and localization, sensor fusion and robot informatics, task-level control, communication protocols, distributed decision-making, and robot software system design and implementation.
RBE 502 or equivalent, linear algebra, differential equations, and mature programming skills, or consent of the instructor. Students cannot receive credit for this course if they have taken the Special Topics (ME 593S) version of the same course.