Seminars

The recent emergence of multi-agent networks in general, and cyber-physical systems in particular, has brought about several non-traditional and non-standard requirements on strategic decision-making, thus challenging the governing assumptions of traditional control and game theory. Some of these requirements stem from factors such as: (i) limitations on memory, (ii) limitations on computation and communication capabilities, (iii) heterogeneity of decision makers (machines versus humans), (iv) heterogeneity and sporadic failure of channels that connect the information sources (sensors) to decision units (strategic agents), (v) limitations on the frequency of exchanges between different decision units and the actions taken by the agents, (vi) operation being conducted in a hostile environment where disturbances are controlled by adversarial agents, (vii) lack of cooperation among multiple decision units, (viii) lack of a common objective shared by multiple control stations, and (ix) presence of multiple layers in the topologies of the underlying networks. These all lead to substantial degradation in performance and loss in efficiency if appropriate mechanisms are not in place. The talk will identify the underlying challenges, particularly those that are brought about by the adversarial nature of the environment and also dwell on the research opportunities this broader framework creates for communication, control and game theory. In this context, issues of network resilience, reliability and security will be discussed, with some specific applications in networks with static and dynamic (mobile) nodes, with adversary-inflicted topological changes.