Motif-Based Topology Design for Efficient Performance by Networks of Mobile Autonomous Vehicles

Networked systems of autonomous agents have emerged in a variety of applications such as collaborative robotics, mobile sensor networks and disaster relief operations. Complex phenomena are often observed in these systems due to the large number of agents, nonlinear interactions, locality of information transmission, and changes in the connectivity of the agents. Similar to their natural counterparts, engineered autonomous agents are capable of developing emergent behaviors such as herding, collaborative decision making based on local communication.