Protocols Beyond Communication: Exploring Sensing-Driven and Implicit Coordination in MASs

A core assumption in nearly all reviewed papers (e.g., Ma et al., Source 1, Heuristic 4; Wei et al., Source 4) is that explicit, digital communication is essential for MAS coordination. However, many natural systems achieve remarkable coordination with only local sensing and indirect cues. This research explores “communication-minimal” or “sensing-driven” MAS protocols, where agents coordinate through implicit signals (e.g., environmental changes, shared physical cues, or even signal interference patterns) rather than explicit messages. The goal is to formalize and analyze the limits of coordination achievable without traditional communication—potentially developing protocols where agents “read” each other’s intentions from environmental traces or mutual perturbations. This challenges the foundational assumption of communication necessity and could lead to breakthrough protocols for extremely constrained, hostile, or stealth-critical scenarios (e.g., underwater swarms, military robots, or covert logistics). The theoretical and practical implications could redefine what we mean by “coordination” in MASs.

References:

1. A novel protocol with pure relative output information for consensus of linear multi-agent systems. Yuwen Ma, Xianwei Li, Shaoyuan Li (2022). IEEE Conference on Decision and Control.
2. A Robust Distributed Model Predictive Control Framework for Consensus of Multi-Agent Systems with Input Constraints and Varying Delays. Henglai Wei, Changxin Liu, Yang Shi (2022). arXiv.org.