Scaling Robust Optimization for Multi-Agent Robotic Systems: A Distributed Perspective

This paper presents a novel distributed robust optimization scheme for steering distributions of multi-agent systems under stochastic and deterministic uncertainty. Robust optimization is a subfield of optimization which aims in discovering an optimal solution that remains robustly feasible for all possible realizations of the problem parameters within a given uncertainty set. Such approaches would naturally constitute an ideal candidate for multi-robot control, where in addition to stochastic noise, there might be exogenous deterministic disturbances. Nevertheless, as these methods are usually associated with significantly high computational demands, their application to multi-agent robotics has remained limited. The scope of this work is to propose a scalable robust optimization framework that effectively addresses both types of uncertainties, while retaining computational efficiency and scalability. In this direction, we provide tractable approximations for robust constraints that are relevant in multi-robot settings. Subsequently, we demonstrate how computations can be distributed through an Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM) approach towards achieving scalability and communication efficiency. Simulation results highlight the performance of the proposed algorithm in effectively handling both stochastic and deterministic uncertainty in multi-robot systems. The scalability of the method is also emphasized by showcasing tasks with up to 100 agents. The results of this work indicate the promise of blending robust optimization, distribution steering and distributed optimization towards achieving scalable, safe and robust multi-robot control.