Theoretical and computational investigations will be launched to address fundamental issues associated with analysis, control, and design of networked physical systems forming an autonomously cooperative team in the presence of another team of adversaries. The goal of the present work is to expand the scope of the theory that was developed earlier for the specific applications scenarios to wider set of dynamic applications where game theory (and control) potentially has a role to play. The range of such potential applications is are very broad including robotics, modeling of economies, energy distribution and biomedicine.
As for the technical contributions of this exploratory work one can expect results from several different perspectives. The first point of departure from traditional game theory namely that of the study of dynamic processes rather than the study of equilibria has been already mentioned. Second point of departure is that while optimal control and system theory had indeed made use of game theoretic techniques in the past, this body of literature was largely limited to linear processes. The present investigation will be far more general to include nonlinear, as well as hybrid (i.e., mixed continuous, discrete), and asynchronous systems as well. Thus, while guided by applications, developing a general theory would be expected outcome of the proposed research. A third point of departure is while earlier theories focused on obtaining analytical solutions, the results from present investigation (since it involves nonlinear processes) will of necessity be computational or algorithmic in nature.
The potential societal implications of the proposed theoretical/computational work is great ranging from economics, biomedicine to defense applications. Since the PIs are in close contact with application domains and the industry the potential for transfer of innovative methods and tools to applications is tremendous. The PIs also plan to educate graduate students as well as undergraduate students on related topics.
