Decentralized Multi-Subgroup Formation Control With Connectivity Preservation and Collision Avoidance

This paper proposes a formation control algorithm to create separated multiple formations for an undirected networked multi-agent system while preserving the network connectivity and avoiding collision among agents. Through the modified multi-consensus technique, the proposed algorithm can simultaneously divide a group of multiple agents into any arbitrary number of desired formations in a decentralized manner. Furthermore, the agents assigned to each formation group can be easily reallocated to other formation groups without network topological constraints as long as the entire network is initially connected; an operator can freely partition agents even if there is no spanning tree within each subgroup. Besides, the system can avoid collision without loosing the connectivity even during the transient period of formation by applying the existing potential function based on the network connectivity estimation. If the estimation is correct, the potential function not only guarantees the connectivity maintenance but also allows some extra edges to be broken if the network remains connected. Numerical simulations are performed to verify the feasibility and performance of the proposed multi-subgroup formation control

Enaction-Based Artificial Intelligence: Toward Coevolution with Humans in the Loop

This article deals with the links between the enaction paradigm and artificial intelligence. Enaction is considered a metaphor for artificial intelligence, as a number of the notions which it deals with are deemed incompatible with the phenomenal field of the virtual. After explaining this stance, we shall review previous works regarding this issue in terms of artifical life and robotics. We shall focus on the lack of recognition of co-evolution at the heart of these approaches. We propose to explicitly integrate the evolution of the environment into our approach in order to refine the ontogenesis of the artificial system, and to compare it with the enaction paradigm. The growing complexity of the ontogenetic mechanisms to be activated can therefore be compensated by an interactive guidance system emanating from the environment. This proposition does not however resolve that of the relevance of the meaning created by the machine (sense-making). Such reflections lead us to integrate human interaction into this environment in order to construct relevant meaning in terms of participative artificial intelligence. This raises a number of questions with regards to setting up an enactive interaction. The article concludes by exploring a number of issues, thereby enabling us to associate current approaches with the principles of morphogenesis, guidance, the phenomenology of interactions and the use of minimal enactive interfaces in setting up experiments which will deal with the problem of artificial intelligence in a variety of enaction-based ways

File-based storage of Digital Objects and constituent datastreams: XMLtapes and Internet Archive ARC files

This paper introduces the write-once/read-many XMLtape/ARC storage approach for Digital Objects and their constituent datastreams. The approach combines two interconnected file-based storage mechanisms that are made accessible in a protocol-based manner. First, XML-based representations of multiple Digital Objects are concatenated into a single file named an XMLtape. An XMLtape is a valid XML file; its format definition is independent of the choice of the XML-based complex object format by which Digital Objects are represented. The creation of indexes for both the identifier and the creation datetime of the XML-based representation of the Digital Objects facilitates OAI-PMH-based access to Digital Objects stored in an XMLtape. Second, ARC files, as introduced by the Internet Archive, are used to contain the constituent datastreams of the Digital Objects in a concatenated manner. An index for the identifier of the datastream facilitates OpenURL-based access to an ARC file. The interconnection between XMLtapes and ARC files is provided by conveying the identifiers of ARC files associated with an XMLtape as administrative information in the XMLtape, and by including OpenURL references to constituent datastreams of a Digital Object in the XML-based representation of that Digital Object.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figures (camera-ready copy for ECDL 2005

Federated Embedded Systems – a review of the literature in related fields

This report is concerned with the vision of smart interconnected objects, a vision that has attracted much attention lately. In this paper, embedded, interconnected, open, and heterogeneous control systems are in focus, formally referred to as Federated Embedded Systems. To place FES into a context, a review of some related research directions is presented. This review includes such concepts as systems of systems, cyber-physical systems, ubiquitous computing, internet of things, and multi-agent systems. Interestingly, the reviewed fields seem to overlap with each other in an increasing number of ways