Seminario Prof Gennaro Notomista

Analytic Center Controller Selection with Application to Online Optimal Traffic Control
 

Prof. Gennaro Notomista, University of Waterloo (Waterloo, ON, Canada)

Abstract: Constrained-optimization-based control has proven a suitable paradigm for decision-making in autonomous systems deployed over long time horizons in unknown and evolving environments. However, the complexity of optimization-based controllers makes analytical verification significantly more challenging than synthesis. In this talk, we present a novel approach to analyzing and synthesizing optimization-based controllers based on analytic center selection of differential inclusions. The control framework applies to ordinary and partial differential equations and is demonstrated experimentally on a traffic density regulation problem using a platoon of mobile robots.

Gennaro Notomista is an Assistant Professor and the Varma Family Professor in Robotics in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo (Waterloo, ON, Canada). Before joining the University of Waterloo, he was a postdoctoral researcher at CNRS/Inria/IRISA in Rennes, France. He received the Ph.D. degree in robotics from the Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, GA, USA) in 2020. Dr. Notomista is a Fulbright Scholar and was the recipient of the Alumni Small Grant (2020) and the IEEE ARSO Best Paper Award (2022). His main research interests lie at the intersection of design and control of robotic systems for long-duration autonomy, with applications to environmental monitoring..