Design, analysis and implementation of novel distributed controllers for the coordination of autonomous systems

This PhD project will focus on the design, analysis and implementation of novel distributed controllers for the coordination of autonomous systems. The first year of the PhD programme will set the foundations for the project developments. This includes the analysis of the current literature on distributed control systems and their application to cooperative autonomous systems, development and validation of a simulation environment for the application of distributed control algorithms to the coordination of a fleet of autonomous vehicles (e.g., vehicle platooning, swarm of drones, vehicle-drone), benchmarking controllers and relevant post-processing tools. The second and third years of the PhD activity will focus on the formulation, implementation and simulation of the novel distributed controllers, as well as the analysis of the resulting closed-loop control systems. The novel distributed control strategies will be based on the combination of: a) computationally efficient nonlinear controllers (e.g., model predictive controllers, adaptive controllers); and b) intelligent control / artificial intelligence for the online update of the controller parameters depending on the current operating condition. The potential of the novel controllers will be critically analysed with respect to the benchmarking controllers developed in the first year of the PhD. The research of this PhD project is expected to generate high-quality journal publications, and to have long-term academic and industrial impact in the specific subject area