Analyzing human-swarm interactions using control Lyapunov functions and optimal control

© American Institute of Mathematical ScienceDOI: 10.3934/nhm.2015.10.609A number of different interaction modalities have been proposed for human engagement with networked systems. In this paper, we establish formal guarantees for whether or not a given such human-swarm interaction (HSI) strategy is appropriate for achieving particular multi-robot tasks, such as guiding a swarm of robots into a particular geometric configuration. In doing so, we define what it means to impose an HSI control structure on a multi-robot system. Control Lyapunov functions are used to establish feasibility for a user to achieve a particular geometric configuration with a multi-robot system under some selected HSI control structure. Several examples of multi-robot systems with unique HSI control structures are provided to illustrated the use of CLFs to establish feasibility. Additionally, we also uses these examples to illustrate how to use optimal control tools to compute three metrics for evaluating an HSI control structure: attention, effort, and scalability