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AssigneeXerox Corporation
InventorsOliver Guenther, Tad H. Hogg, Bernardo A. Huberman
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A multi-agent control system controls a transport assembly for moving objects. The transport assembly is formed using sensors and actuators that are proximately coupled in physical space. The multi-agent control system includes a learning mechanism which takes advantage of the proximate coupling between the sensors and actuators. The learning mechanism improves system performance by making iterative changes to an interaction matrix that represents the organizational structure of the multi-agent control system. In operation, the learning mechanism makes iterative changes to several of the elements a.sub.ij, of the interaction matrix at one time, around a randomly chosen location (i,j) in the matrix. Changes to the interaction matrix continue to be made so long as the changes result in improved performance of the transport assembly. Advantageously, the learning mechanism enables the multi-agent control system to control the transport assembly without requiring knowledge of specific operating characteristics of the transport assembly.
A transport assembly for moving an object, comprising:
A method for operating a multi-agent control system for controlling a transport assembly, each agent in the control system being coupled to selected sensors and actuators forming the smart matter, comprising the steps of:
A method for operating a multi-agent control system for controlling a paper transport assembly, each agent in the control system being coupled to selected sensors and actuators forming the paper transport assembly, comprising the steps of:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.