Tokyo Institute of Technology · Engineering
Professor Takeshi Hatanaka's research lab specializes in distributed control and optimization for networked systems, with a strong emphasis on passivity-based methods, energy management in HVAC systems, and safe control for autonomous robotic systems. The lab focuses on developing robust, scalable algorithms for multi-agent systems—such as drone swarms and human-robot interactions—ensuring stability, synchronization, and safety under communication delays, topology changes, and uncertain environments. Key applications include persistent surveillance missions, human-swarm collaboration, and energy-efficient building control. The integration of passivity theory with optimization and control enables rigorous convergence and robustness guarantees in real-world scenarios.
Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.
In this paper, we address a class of distributed optimization problems in the presence of inter agent communication delays based on passivity. We first focus on unconstrained distributed optimization and provide a passivity-based perspective for distributed optimization algorithms. With the help of the scattering transformation, this perspective allows us to handle arbitrary and unknown constant communication delays in the distributed optimization problem. Then, we extend the results to constrai
This paper addresses passivity-based pose synchronization in the Special Euclidean group <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">SE</i> (3) . We first develop a passivity-based distributed velocity input law to achieve pose synchronization. We next show that the pose synchronizes exponentially fast under an assumption on the initial states of the bodies, with an exponential convergence rate given by algebraic connectivity of interconnection gr
This paper investigates bilateral human-swarm-interactions wherein the objective is to guarantee human operator enabled synchronization of positions/velocities of an ensemble of kinematic robots to desired reference inputs. We first present a feedback loop configuration, where every robot implements a cooperative controller and the human visually feedbacks the average positions/velocities of the accessible robots depending on the selected (position or velocity) control modes. Asymptotic synchron
In this paper, we address a persistent object search and surveillance mission for drone networks equipped with onboard cameras, and present a safe control strategy based on control barrier functions The mission for the object search and surveillance in this paper is defined with two subtasks, persistent search and object surveillance, which should be flexibly switched depending on the situation. Besides, to ensure actual persistency of the mission, we incorporate two additional specifications, s
In this paper, we address energy management for heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems in buildings, and present a novel combined optimization and control approach. We first formulate a thermal dynamics and an associated optimization problem. An optimization dynamics is then designed based on a standard primal-dual algorithm, and its strict passivity is proved. We then design a local controller and prove that the physical dynamics with the controller is ensured to be passivity
In this paper, we address energy management for heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems in multiple buildings, and present a novel hierarchical/distributed optimization algorithm based on passivity. After formulating a thermal dynamics and an associated optimization problem across multiple buildings, we present a novel physics-integrated hierarchical/distributed optimization algorithm based on so-called primal-dual algorithm and the algorithm presented in [7]. We then prove con
In this paper, we investigate a cooperative estimation problem for visual sensor networks based on multi-agent optimization techniques. A passivity-based visual motion observer is employed as a tool to meet the objective. We first give an interpretation of the visual motion observer from the viewpoint of optimization and present new inputs motivated by the optimization techniques on manifolds. Based on the investigations, we formulate a novel cooperative estimation problem to be tackled. Then, a
This paper addresses cooperative environmental monitoring for Pan-Tilt-Zoom (PTZ) visual sensor networks. In particular, we investigate the optimal monitoring problem whose objective function value is intertwined with the uncertain state of the physical world. In addition, due to the large volume of vision data, it is desired for each sensor to execute processing through local computation and communication. To address these issues, we present a distributed solution to the problem based on game t
This paper investigates cooperative estimation of averaged moving target object poses in three dimensions for visual sensor networks. In particular, we consider the situation where multiple vision cameras see a common target object but the poses consistent with visual measurements differ from camera to camera due to a variety of uncertainties. Under the situation, we try to estimate an average of the contaminated poses not only for static but also for moving target objects by using only local ne
Passivity is one of the most physically appealing concepts in systems and control theory. The stored internal energy in a passive system is bounded from above by the externally supplied energy. It is well known that this energy dissipation property has important implications for closed-loop stability. Additionally, the passivity property is preserved with respect to feedback and parallel interconnections of passive systems. This composability property of passive systems is crucial in designing a
In the last years, unmanned aerial vehicles are becoming a reality in the context of precision agriculture, mainly for monitoring, patrolling and remote sensing tasks, but also for 3D map reconstruction. In this paper, we present an innovative approach where a fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles is exploited to perform remote sensing tasks over an apple orchard for reconstructing a 3D map of the field, formulating the covering control problem to combine the position of a monitoring target and the
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