US 12,393,191 B2
Controlling search agents to perform search with noisy observations and probabilistic guarantees
Abraham Vinod, Cambridge, MA (US); Stefano Di Cairano, Newton, MA (US); Parth Thaker, Tempe, AZ (US); and Gautam Dasarathy, Tempe, AZ (US)
Assigned to Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc.
Filed by Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc., Cambridge, MA (US)
Filed on Sep. 14, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/467,368.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/522,798, filed on Jun. 23, 2023.
Prior Publication US 2024/0427327 A1, Dec. 26, 2024
Int. Cl. G05D 1/00 (2024.01); G06N 20/00 (2019.01)
CPC G05D 1/0088 (2013.01) [G06N 20/00 (2019.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method implemented by one of a control system or a remote server for controlling a movement of at least a first search agent of a set of search agents in a search environment partitioned into a set of regions and classifying each region of the set of regions based on measurements collected by the first search agent, comprising:
an iterative execution of a multi-level multi-arm bandit search (MMBS) method until a termination condition is met, wherein the MMBS method specifies a first set of instructions for individual probabilistic classifications of each region of the set of regions based on the measurements associated with the corresponding region, and a second set of instructions for visiting, by the set of search agents, each path of a set of paths formed from the set of regions based on comparing aggregations of the probabilistic classifications of different paths, wherein each path of the set of paths comprises at least two regions of the search environment, and wherein the iterative execution of MMBS comprises:
collecting confidence bounds of the probabilistic classification of at least one region within at least one path of the set of paths;
comparing aggregations of the confidence bounds of the probabilistic classifications of each path of the set of paths based on the collected confidence bounds;
selecting a first path of the set of paths to be visited by the first search agent based on the comparison;
commanding, via a transceiver configured to exchange data with the set of search agents over a wired or wireless communication channel, the first search agent to visit the selected first path and to collect measurements associated with each region within the selected first path;
updating the confidence bounds of the probabilistic classifications of each region within the selected first path based on the measurements associated with the corresponding regions; and
controlling the movement of at least the first search agent of a set of search agents.