Decentralized Exergy/Entropy Thermodynamic Control for Collective Robotic Systems

Abstract

This paper develops a distributed decentralized control law for collective robotic systems. The control laws are developed based on exergy/entropy thermodynamic concepts and information theory. The source field is characterized through second-order accuracy. The proposed feedback control law stability for both the collective and individual robots are demonstrated by selecting a general Hamiltonian based solution developed as Fisher Information Equivalency as the vector Lyapunov function. Stability boundaries and system performance are then determined with Lyapunov’s direct method. A robot collective plume tracing numerical simulation example demonstrates this decentralized exergy/entropy collective control architecture.