Researchers: Carolina Bergeling, Martin Heyden, Richard Pates, Giacomo Como, Anders Rantzer, Emma Tegling

Large-scale networks play a constantly increasing role in our modern society, e.g., affecting the access to essential services like mobility and energy, influencing the outcome of electoral polls, and determining the quality of the economic system.

The Department hosts a research group on Dynamics, Information, and Control in Networks. The focus of this group is on the mathematical foundations of large-scale network systems with particular emphasis on issues related to their resilience, centrality, and scalability. Applications include cyber-physical systems, transportation networks, as well as social and economic networks.

One project is focused on transportation networks, with publications about decentralized traffic signal control and distributed dynamic tolls.

Another project studies the interplay between economics and traffic flows in transport networks. We will study exchange equilibria in traffic networks and network dynamics in presence of human decision makers. The goal is to gain deeper understanding of, and be able to exploit, the interaction between node demands and network flows. 

Funding: European Research Council, Swedish Research Council and Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research

Past members: Michelle Chong, Giulia Giordano, Christian Grussler, Sei Zhen Khong, Laurent Lessard, Enrico Lovisari, Magnus Perninge, Wilbert Rossi, Kaoru Yamamoto, Di Zhao, Lorenzo Zino

Some recent representative publications are listed below:

• R. Maggistro and G. Como. "Stability and optimality of multi-scale transportation networks with distributed dynamic tolls" (INVITED). The 57th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, December 2018, Miami Beach (FL), US.
• C. Rosdahl, G. Nilsson, and G. Como. “On distributed optimal control of traffic flows in transportation networks” (INVITED). 2018 IEEE Conference on Control Technology and Applications (CCTA), Copenhagen, Denmark.
• G. Nilsson and G. Como, “Evaluation of Decentralized Feedback Traffic Light Control with Dynamic Cycle Length“, 15th IFAC Symposium on Control in Transportation Systems, 2018, Savona, Italy.
• G. Nilsson and G. Como, “On generalized proportional allocation policies for traffic signal control”, (INVITED), in Proceedings of the 20th IFAC World Congress, IFAC-PapersOnLine, Vol. 50(1), pp. 9643-9648, 2017.
• L. Zino, G. Como, and F. Fagnani. "Fast Diffusion of a Mutant in Controlled Evolutionary Dynamics", in Proceedings of the 20th IFAC World Congress, IFAC-PapersOnLine, Vol. 50(1), pp. 11908-11913, 2017.
• W.S. Rossi, G. Como, and F. Fagnani, "Threshold models of cascades in large-scale networks", IEEE Transactions on Network Science and Engineering, in press, 2017.
• G. Como, "On resilient control of dynamical flow networks", Annual Reviews in Control, Vol. 43, pp. 80-90, 2017. 
• G. Como, E. Lovisari, and K. Savla, "Convexity and robustness of Dynamical Traffic Assignment for control of freeway networks", Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Vol. 91, pp. 446-465, 2016.
• G. Como and F. Fagnani, "From local averaging to emergent global behaviors: the fundamental role of network interconnections", Systems and Control Letters, Vol. 95, pp. 70-76, 2016.
• G. Como and F. Fagnani, "Robustness of large-scale stochastic matrices to localized perturbations", IEEE Transactions on Network Science and Engineering, Vol.2 (2), 1-12, 2015. 
• G. Como, E. Lovisari, and K. Savla, "Throughput optimality and overload behavior of dynamical flow networks under monotone distributed routing", IEEE Transactions on Control of Network Systems, Vol. 2 (1), pp. 57-67, 2015.
• K. Savla, G. Como, and M. Dahleh, "Robust network routing under cascading failures", IEEE Transactions on Network Science and Engineering, Vol.1 (1), 53-66, 2014.
• G. Como, K. Savla, D. Acemoglu, M. Dahleh, and E. Frazzoli, “Stability analysis of transportation networks with multiscale driver decisions”, SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization, Vol. 51 (1), pp. 230-252, January 2013.
• D. Acemoglu, G. Como, F. Fagnani, and A. Ozdaglar, “Opinion fluctuations and disagreement in social networks”, Mathematics of Operation Research Vol. 38 (1), pp. 1-27, February 2013.
• G. Como, K. Savla, D. Acemoglu, M. Dahleh, and E. Frazzoli, “Distributed robust routing in dynamical networks -- Part I: Locally responsive policies and weak resilience”, "Part II: strong resilience, equilibrium selection and cascaded failures” IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, Vol. 58 (2), pp. 317-348, February 2013.