An Encoded Corrective Double Deep Q-Networks for Multi-Agent Control Systems

This paper studies the synthesis of control policies for heterogeneous and interconnected multi-agent systems that collaborate through data exchange over a communication network to minimize a collective cost. We propose a distributed encoded corrective double actor-critic framework that integrates a novel message-passing mechanism. Existing methods assume noise-free and delay-free access to the global or partial states and overlook the fact that the global states, though noisy and delayed, can be progressively reconstructed and refined over time. In contrast, this work explicitly models communication sampling asynchrony, delay, and link noise based on the network configuration. The proposed message-passing mechanism characterizes timing and information flow to refine and time shift global state information, which is then used to incrementally correct the Q-networks. The double Q-network design mitigates overestimation bias, while the shared encoder coupling the actor-critic networks captures inter-agent dependencies. We evaluate our approach in multiple test cases, demonstrate its effectiveness over various baselines, and provide a numerical regret analysis.

UAV Energy Consumption Models for Wireless Systems Research: Model Selection and Misconceptions

Uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) are gaining increasing attention in wireless systems, providing new opportunities to expand the reach and improve the quality of wireless services. Despite their versatility, UAVs are limited by available energy onboard, which results in significant challenges in deploying UAV-enabled wireless systems. Modeling energy consumption is an essential component of the deployment and trajectory optimization of UAVs. This article presents a comprehensive overview of UAV energy consumption models, with a focus on their relevance to wireless systems research. We deliberately exclude data-driven and overly complex models to provide clear and practical guidelines for their use in wireless systems research. We begin by categorizing the most common types of UAVs and describing the typical flight phases considered in the literature. We then review existing energy consumption models, focusing on their scope with respect to UAV types and flight phases. We also discuss common mistakes in the use of these models and highlight the existing gaps in the literature. In particular, we show how the use of a wrong model can lead to significant errors in energy consumption calculations. Finally, we emphasize the need to develop energy consumption models for missing scenarios.