Abstract: I will present distributed decision-making dynamics for multi-agent systems, motivated by studies of animal groups, such as house-hunting honeybees, and their extraordinary ability to make collective decisions that are both robust to disturbance and adaptable to change. The dynamics derive from principles of symmetry, consensus, and bifurcation in networked systems, exploiting instability as a means to flexibly transition from one stable solution to another. Feedback dynamics are derived for the bifurcation control, a variable representing social effort, such that flexible transition is made a controlled adaptive response.

Bio: Naomi Ehrich Leonard is the Edwin S. Wilsey Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and associated faculty in Applied and Computational Mathematics at Princeton University.   She is a MacArthur Fellow, member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and Fellow of IEEE, SIAM, IFAC, and ASME.  She received her B.S.E. in Mechanical Engineering from Princeton University and her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland.   Her current research focuses on control and dynamical systems with application to multi-agent systems, mobile sensor networks, collective animal behavior, and human decision dynamics.

Host: Matt Mason

For Appointment: Jean Harpley (js3g@andrew.cmu.edu)