UNIVERSITY OF HERTFORDSHIRE
                 COMPUTER SCIENCE RESEARCH COLLOQUIUM
                                      

                 Towards an "ageless" aerospace vehicle: 
		       design vs. self-organization

                           Mikhail Prokopenko 
                  Autonomous Systems, CSIRO ICT Centre, 
		               Australia

                        31 August 2005 (Wednesday)
                                      
                          Lecture Theatre E350  
                       Hatfield, College Lane Campus
                               3 - 4 pm
                                      
               Coffee/tea and biscuits will be available.
                                      
                    Everyone is Welcome to Attend
                          [Space Permitting]
   

Abstract:
  
Robust or "ageless" aerospace vehicles (AAVs) are expected to be capable of 
structural self-assessment and repair. The research results presented in this 
talk were obtained as part of the joint CSIRO-NASA Ageless Aerospace Vehicles 
project, which also includes an experimental test-bed and concept demonstrator 
system. The initial goal of the current AAV Concept Demonstrator is the 
detection and evaluation of high velocity impacts. We describe the underlying 
principles, methodology, preliminary results and lessons of simulating and 
developing a multi-agent sensor and communication network in a dynamic 
decentralized setting, motivated by a self-monitoring, self-repairing AAV. 
In particular, we review self-organization of robust impact boundaries 
enclosing critically damaged areas, formation of impact networks connecting 
survived nodes in presence of connectivity disruptions, self-organizing 
diagnostics, and possible shape replication strategies. The self-organizing 
patterns are shown to have distinct higher-order emergent properties, 
quantitatively measured with graph-theoretic and information-theoretic 
techniques. This allows us to clearly identify phase transitions, separating 
chaotic dynamics from ordered and robust patterns, and evolve some of the 
required configurations with genetic algorithms.

About the Speaker:
Dr. Mikhail Prokopenko is a senior research scientist at CSIRO ICT Centre, with a 
Ph.D. (Computer Science, Macquarie University, Australia), an M.A. (Economics, 
University of Missouri-Columbia, USA), and an M.S. (Applied Mathematics, Azerbaijan 
Oil and Chemistry Institute, USSR). His long-term research goal is design and 
control of complex self-organizing multi-agent systems, and an effective integration 
of real-time perception, reasoning and action in autonomous agents. His work has 
resulted in over 50 publications and patents. In June 2002, Mikhail Prokopenko 
received the JSAI (Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence) award. During 
2002-200, Mikhail was coordinating the Multi-Agent Algorithms team within the 
CSIRO-NASA research project on Ageless Aerospace Vehicles. Currently, Mikhail is 
leading an ICT Centre project on Distributed Intelligence, Sensing and Coordination 
in Variable Environments (DISCOVERY), aiming at fully autonomous underwater sensor 
and actuator networks protecting critical infrastructure.

http://www.ict.csiro.au/asl/
http://www.ict.csiro.au/staff/Mikhail.Prokopenko/ 

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Hertfordshire Computer Science Research Colloquium 
http://cs-colloq.feis.herts.ac.uk/