Brittle Synergy: An optimal decomposition of minimax team decision problems

In this work, the team decision problem with quadratic cost is considered in the minimax setting. The structure of the optimal policies is studied, together with decompositions of the optimization problem that do not lead to loss of optimality. Furthermore, communication of information between agents is considered. Sufficient conditions for decomposition are presented for an important class of problems not decomposable by traditional methods. It is shown that the decomposition also lessens the number of required communication channels. Solution methods are derived and illustrated on a unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) formation flying example.