Network-decentralized control

Time: 12.00 Noon
Location: Meeting Room Garda, Polo Scientifico e Tecnologico "Fabio Ferrari" (Edificio Povo 1), via Sommarive 5 - Povo, Trento

Categories: Networked Systems; Control Systems; Distributed Algorithms; Complex Systems; Cooperative Driving.

Speaker:

• Prof. Franco Blanchini
  University of Udine.
  Director of the Laboratory of System Dynamics

Abstract:
We consider the problem of stabilizing a class of systems formed by a set of decoupled subsystems (associated with the nodes of a graph) interconnected through a set of controllers (associated with the graph arcs). Controllers are network-decentralized if they use information exclusively from the nodes they interconnect.

In the case of a linear control system, this condition requires a block-structured feedback matrix, having the same structure as the transpose of the overall input matrix of the system. If the subsystems do not have common unstable eigenvalues, we demonstrate that the problem is always solvable. In the general case, we provide sufficient conditions for solvability. When subsystems are identical and each input agent controls a pair of subsystems with input matrices having opposite sign (flow networks), we prove that stabilization is possible if and only if the system is connected with the external environment.

We consider also the control of flow networks, in which the nodes represent buffers, in the presence of constraints. We propose a saturated network decentralized strategy which is asymptotically optimal, in the sense that it drives to the minimum-norm flow compatible with the constraints, notwithstanding the fact that agents are making their decisions independently, based only on local information.

We discuss several applications, including water distribution networks, data communication networks, consensus, synchronization and platooning.

About the Speaker:
Franco Blanchini was born on 29 December 1959, in Legnano (Italy). He is the Director of the Laboratory of System Dynamics at the University of Udine. He has been involved in the organization of several international events: in particular, he was Program Vice-Chairman of the Conference Joint CDC-ECC 2005, Seville, Spain; Program Vice-Chairman of the Conference CDC 2008, Cancun, Mexico; Program Chairman of the Conference ROCOND, Aalborg, Denmark, June 2012 and Program Vice-Chairman of the Conference CDC 2013, Florence, Italy. He is co-author of the book “Set theoretic methods in control”, Birkhäuser. He is the recipient of 2001 ASME Oil & Gas Application Committee Best Paper Award as a co-author of the article “Experimental evaluation of a High-Gain Control for Compressor Surge Instability”. He is the recipient of the 2002 IFAC prize survey paper award as author of the article “Set Invariance in Control - a survey”, Automatica, November 1999. He was nominated as Senior Member IEEE in 2003. He has been an Associate Editor for Automatica from 1996 to 2006. He is an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control since 2011.

Contact Person Regarding this Talk:
Renato Lo Cigno, locigno [at] disi.unitn.it