Workshop on Swarming in Natural and Engineered Systems
Napa Valley, California
August 3-4, 2005

Goals | Participants | Schedule | Accommodations | Registration |  Organizers | Steering Committee | Proceedings | Sponsors

Goals

The workshop brings together experts in artificial intelligence, control theory, robotics, systems engineering and biology with the goal of understanding swarming behaviors in nature and applications of biologically-inspired models of swarm behaviors to large networked groups of autonomous vehicles. We are specifically interested in developing a framework and methodology for the analysis of swarming behavior in biology and the synthesis of bio-inspired swarming behavior for engineered systems. We will be interested in such questions as: Can large numbers of autonomously functioning vehicles be reliably deployed in the form of a "swarm" to carry out a prescribed mission and to respond as a group to high-level management commands? Can such a group successfully function in a potentially hostile environment, without a designated leader, with limited communications between its members, and/or with different and potentially dynamically changing "roles" for its members? What can we learn about how to organize these teams from biological groupings such as insect swarms, bird flocks, and fish schools? Is there a hierarchy of "compatible" models appropriate to swarming/schooling/flocking which is rich enough to explain these behaviors at various "resolutions" ranging from aggregate characterizations of emergent behavior to detailed descriptions which model individual vehicle dynamics? The workshop will feature oral presentations and posters over a two-day period addressing these questions and other issues that are fundamental to understanding and realizing group behavior.

Participants

Abed, Eyad H.   University of Maryland  Adams, Eldridge   University of Connecticut  Adler, Fred   University of Utah  Anderson, Brian   Australian National University   Anderson, Gary   Army    Balch, Tucker   Georgia Institute of Technology   Banda, Siva   AFRL    Baras, John S.   University of Maryland   Belta, Calin   Boston University  Berman, Spring    University of Pennsylvania  Bertozzi, Andrea   University of California, Los Angeles   Bullo, Francesco   University of California, Santa Barbara  Chung, Hoam   University of California, Berkeley Cox, Steven   ONR    Egerstedt, Magnus   Georgia Institute of Technology   Eklund, J. Mikael    University of California, Berkeley Erignac, Charles   Boeing     Evers, Johnny   AFRL      Fainekos, Georgios   University of Pennsylvania   Fierro, Rafael   Oklahoma State University       Frazzoli, Emilio   University of California, Los Angeles  Gage, Doug   XPM Technologies     Garg, Dev   Duke University    Grunbaum, Daniel   University of Washington  Huzmezan, Mihai   United Technologies research Center (UTRC) Hyunchul Shim, David   University of California, Berkeley Hsieh, Ani    University of Pennsylvania   Jadbabaie, Ali   University of Pennsylvania  Klavins, Eric   University of Washington    Koditschek, Daniel E.   University of Pennsylvania   Krishnaprasad, P.S.   University of Maryland Kumar, Vijay   University of Pennsylvania

Lynch, Kevin   Northwestern University    Mesbahi, Mehran   University of Washington Michael, Nathan   University of Pennsylvania Moehlis, Jeff   University of California, Santa Barbara Moore, David C.    Massachusetts Institute of Technology Moshtagh, Nima   University of Pennsylvania Morse, A. Stephen   Yale University Moshfegh, Allen   DARPA Motee, Nader   University of Pennsylvania Overholt, Jim   TACOM Paley, Derek   Princeton University Pappas, George   University of Pennsylvania Parrish, Julia   University of Washington Passino, Kevin   Ohio State University Prandini, Maria   Politecnico of Milano, Italy Pratt, Stephen   Princeton University Rus, Daniela   Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sastry, S. Shankar   University of California, Berkeley Sengupta, Raja   University of California, Berkeley Skelly, David   Yale University Steinberg, Marc   ONR Sukhatme, Gaurav   University of Southern California Sultan, Cornel   United Technologies research Center (UTRC) Swinson, Mark   ARO Tanner, Herbert   University of New Mexico Tilbury, Dawn   University of Michigan Weiss, Ron   Princeton University Wilkerson, Drew    ARL Zachery, Randy   ARO Zavlanos, Michael   University of Pennsylvania Zhang, Fumin   Princeton University

Schedule

The workshop will be held from on August 3-4, 2005 and will feature presentations and posters. A detailed schedule is available here.

Each oral presentation will be 25 minutes long, including 5 minutes for questions. Posters can be at most 4 feet high and 3 feet wide. Each poster presenter will have an easel with two arms for support. Presenters are encouraged to mount their posters on a foam core. It may be easiest for you to electronically transmit your file to Fryes Printing  or to  Kinko's (phone: (707) 226-7722; email: usa5493@fedexkinkos.com) and pick it up on your arrival at Napa.

Accommodations

A block of room has been reserved at the Embassy Suites Hotel, Napa, California. You must call 1-800-362-2779 or 707-253-9540 ext.40. or go online to make reservations by July 5, 2005 in order to be guaranteed a room. Please say you are with the "SWARM" Conference and use the 3 letter conference code of "SWA" if you go online. Because this is a busy time in Napa, the hotel will not take cancellations after July 5 and your credit card will be charged. If you need rooms on nights other than Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday night, please contact Mona Lisa in reservations at 707-253-9540 ext. 1002 during business hours in Napa.

Registration

A registration fee of $100 will be charged on site to defray meals costs. Personal checks are preferred. No credit cards can be accepted.

Organizers

Ali Jadbabaie, Vijay Kumar and George Pappas, University of Pennsylvania.

Steering Committee

Francesco Bullo, University of California, Santa Barbara
Ali Jadbabaie, University of Pennsylvania
Daniel E. Koditschek, University of Pennsylvania
Vijay Kumar, University of Pennsylvania
A. Stephen Morse, Yale University
George Pappas, University of Pennsylvania
Daniela Rus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
S. Shankar Sastry, University of California, Berkeley
David Skelly, Yale University

Proceedings

There are tentative plans to approach Springer Verlag to publish a collection of papers as a sequel to the Block Island Workshop on Cooperative Control.

Sponsors

The workshop is organized with support from the Army Research Office, the ARO Institute of Collaborative Biotechnology and the School of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Pennsylvania.

[SWARMS website]