Surrogate Optimal Control for Strategic Multi-Agent Systems

This paper studies how to design a platform to optimally control constrained multi-agent systems with a single coordinator and multiple strategic agents. In our setting, only the coordinator applies control inputs, however, it must do so based on information provided by the agents. One major challenge is that if the platform is not correctly designed then the agents may provide false information to the coordinator in order to achieve improved outcomes for themselves at the expense of the overall system efficiency. Here, we design an interaction mechanism between the agents and the coordinator such that the mechanism: ensures agents truthfully report their information, has low communication requirements, and leads to a control action that achieves efficiency by achieving a Nash equilibrium. We illustrate our proposed mechanism in a model predictive control (MPC) application involving heating, ventilation, air-conditioning (HVAC) control by a building manager of an apartment building.