One Ring to Rule Them All: Constrained Distributional Control for Massive-Scale Heterogeneous Robotic Ensemble Systems

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel constrained ensemble control framework for large-scale heterogeneous robotic systems, enabling safe and efficient population-level control under complex spatial and environmental constraints using a unified moment-based approach.

Contribution

It introduces a moment kernel transform for parameterized ensemble dynamics and a unified formulation for constrained, safe control of heterogeneous robotic populations.

Findings

Effective control of robotic ensembles demonstrated in simulations.

Hardware experiments validate safety and efficiency in constrained environments.

Unified control approach handles complex visit-avoid tasks with a single controller.

Abstract

Ensemble control aims to steer a population of dynamical systems using a shared control input. This paper introduces a constrained ensemble control framework for parameterized, heterogeneous robotic systems operating under state and environmental constraints, such as obstacle avoidance. We develop a moment kernel transform that maps the parameterized ensemble dynamics to the moment system in a kernel space, enabling the characterization of population-level behavior. The state-space constraints, such as polyhedral waypoints to be visited and obstacles to be avoided, are also transformed into the moment space, leading to a unified formulation for safe, large-scale ensemble control. Expressive signal temporal logic specifications are employed to encode complex visit-avoid tasks, which are achieved through a single shared controller synthesized from our constrained ensemble control formulation. Simulation and hardware experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach in safely and efficiently controlling robotic ensembles within constrained environments.