Cooperative systems are pervasive in a multitude of environments and at all levels. We find them at the microscopic biological level up to complex ecological structures. They are found in single organisms and they exist in large sociological organizations. Cooperative systems can be found in machine applications and in situations involving man and machine working together.
They have some common elements: 1) more than one entity, 2) the entities have behaviors that influence the decision space, 3) entities share at least one common objective, and 4) entities share information whether actively or passively.
Because of the clearly important role cooperative systems play in areas such as military sciences, biology, communications, robotics, and economics, just to name a few, the study of cooperative systems has intensified. This book provides an insight in the basic understanding of cooperative systems as well as in theory, modeling, and applications of cooperative control, optimization and related problems.