An Introduction to Collective and Cooperative Systems

Cooperative systems are introduced to the reader as a part of a broader class of collective systems. A taxonomy of collective systems is defined such that each class within the taxonomy is rigorously defined based upon the mathematical constructs of team theory. It is shown that this taxonomy leads to a precise definition of cooperation and clearly separates intentional cooperation from serendipitous complementary behavior. Concepts of precedence, hierarchy, and supervision are made clear in the presence of information such that team theory and decentralized control theory are generalized into the single framework of collective systems. It is anticipated that this framework will lead to a consistent representation of cooperation in future research and new methods for solving the hard problem of non nested information structures in team theory.