Game Theoretic Learning for Distributed Autonomous Systems
Jeff Shamma, Georgia Institute of Technology
Abstract. Recent years have witnessed renewed and growing interest in the area of distributed autonomous systems. In short, these systems consist of a collection of decision making components with limited processing capabilities, locally sensed information, and limited inter-component communications, all seeking to achieve a collective objective. The distributed nature of information processing, sensing, and actuation makes these systems a significant departure from traditional centralized decision architectures and more aligned with the framework of game theory, i.e., the study of interactions between decision makers. Of particular relevance is game theoretic learning, in which the focus shifts away from equilibrium solution concepts and towards the dynamics of how decision makers reach equilibrium. This talk presents an overview of game theoretic learning, from its origins as a "descriptive" tool for social systems to recent work on its "prescriptive" role for engineered systems, i.e., as an approach to design online learning algorithms for distributed autonomous systems.
Biography. Jeff Shamma's research interest is feedback control and systems theory. He received a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Tech in 1983 and a PhD in Systems Science and Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1988. He has held faculty positions at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis; University of Texas, Austin; and University of California, Los Angeles; and visiting positions at Caltech and MIT. In 2007, Jeff returned to Georgia Tech where he is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Julian T. Hightower Chair in Systems & Control. He is a recipient of the NSF Young Investigator Award (1992) and the American Automatic Control Council Donald P. Eckman Award (1996), and a Fellow of the IEEE (2006). He is currently serving on the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board and is an associate editor for the IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Part B. Jeff's interests include fishing in the local lakes & rivers of Georgia or in his hometown of Pensacola and chatting (and arguing) with his brother.