"Steering a Multi-Robot System With a Shared Control Signal"

Advances in micro/nano-robotics enable manufacturing large numbers (10^2---10^9) of robots.  A key challenge is that these robots are commonly controlled by actuation mechanisms (e.g. electromagnetic or acoustic fields, optical or chemical gradients, or fluid flow) that apply global inputs to all robots at once.  We address this challenge by extending ensemble control theory from open-loop to feedback control.  Results are shown in simulation and with hardware demonstrations with macro-scale robots.