DECIDE - AI design of decentralized coopetitive control over networks

About the project

The DECIDE research project will develop a new unified methodology for decentralized coopetitive control of systems interconnected over networks. Coopetitive interconnected systems blend together competition – each system has its individual cost to optimize – with cooperation in order to reach a coherent synchronized behavior. Due to the lack of precise knowledge on the system's dynamics and on the interconnection topology, we will use machine learning techniques from artificial intelligence (AI) to design agile control strategies. The efficiency of the fundamental results obtained during the project will be validated in high-societal-impact case studies including robotics, epidemics control and climate change planning.

The project is funded by the Romanian Ministry of Research, Innovation, and Digitization under the National Resilience and Recovery Plan, component C9: Support for the private sector, research, development and innovation, investment I8: Development of a programme to attract highly specialised human resources from abroad to perform research, development and innovation. The project code is 57/14.11.2022, funding contract 760069/23.05.2023, and the project takes place within the Robotics and Nonlinear Control group of the Automation Department of the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania, for a duration of three years starting July 2023 and a total budget of 1 405 421,34 EUR.

Objectives

Develop fundamental results on model-based decentralized control of large-scale interconnected systems
Design fundamental results on machine learning tools to provide performance guarantees in the framework of cooperative control
Extend the AI-based fundamental results to the case of coopetitive control that handles non-aligned cost associated with a global synchronization behavior
Apply the fundamental results developed to practical case studies with a high societal impact

Team

Constantin Morarescu, principal investigator (professor, PhD).
Lucian Busoniu, experienced researcher (professor, PhD). Lead of ROCON group where the project takes place.
Zsofia Lendek, experienced researcher (professor, PhD).
Vineeth S. Varma, experienced researcher (PhD).
Mircea Susca, postdoc (PhD).
Alexandru Codrean, postdoc (PhD).
Etienne Gorski, research assistant (PhD student).
Tudor Santejudean, research assistant (PhD student).
Bilal Yousuf, research assistant (PhD student).
Florin Gogianu, research assistant (PhD student).
Tudor Alinei-Poiana, research engineer (MSc student).
Elvin Pop, research engineer (MSc student).