Designing Rules for Multi-Robot Systems

July 2023 – July 2025

Objective
This project aims to engineer the rules by which intelligent robots interact with each other in public spaces. In particular, this project focuses on tools from the field of mechanism design, which strives to set rules for interaction between rational agents. Designing rules via mechanism design allows for systems where robots collaborate toward global goals, even when their individual goals and specifications differ. Mechanism design, coupled with tools from formal methods and planning,  can help achieve global goals like safely sharing resources, minimizing the risk of failures in uncertain systems, and engendering the trust of humans.

Background
Multi-robot planning is a complex optimization problem that must consider both the goals of each robot and the interaction between those goals. The first step toward solving this problem requires understanding the realities of modern-day robots. The second step requires meta-reasoning through game theory. This problem becomes more complicated with the introduction of humans, who interact with robots in unique and often unpredictable ways.

About the Digital Futures Postdoc Fellow
Anna Gautier is a postdoctoral researcher in artificial intelligence and robotics. She works in the Robotics, Perception and Learning division at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. Anna obtained her PhD from the University of Oxford in July 2023, with a thesis entitled “Resource Allocation for Constrained Multi-Agent Systems.” Her research interests include multi-agent systems, human-robot interaction, planning under uncertainty, formal methods and mechanism design.

Main supervisor
Jana Tumova, Associate Professor at the Department of Robotics, Perception, and Learning at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Digital Futures Faculty

Co-supervisor
Iolanda Leite, Associate Professor at the Department of Robotics, Perception, and Learning at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Digital Futures Faculty

Watch the recorded presentation at the Digitalize in Stockholm 2023 event: