Distributed Design for Decentralized Control using Chordal Decomposition and ADMM

We propose a distributed design method for decentralized control by exploiting the underlying sparsity properties of the problem. Our method is based on chordal decomposition of sparse block matrices and the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM). We first apply a classical parameterization technique to restrict the optimal decentralized control into a convex problem that inherits the sparsity pattern of the original problem. The parameterization relies on a notion of strongly decentralized stabilization, and sufficient conditions are discussed to guarantee this notion. Then, chordal decomposition allows us to decompose the convex restriction into a problem with partially coupled constraints, and the framework of ADMM enables us to solve the decomposed problem in a distributed fashion. Consequently, the subsystems only need to share their model data with their direct neighbours, not needing a central computation. Numerical experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in the IEEE Transactions on Control of Network System

State-dependent Riccati equation feedback stabilization for nonlinear PDEs

The synthesis of suboptimal feedback laws for controlling nonlinear dynamics arising from semi-discretized PDEs is studied. An approach based on the State-dependent Riccati Equation (SDRE) is presented for 2 and ∞ control problems. Depending on the nonlinearity and the dimension of the resulting problem, offline, online, and hybrid offline-online alternatives to the SDRE synthesis are proposed. The hybrid offline-online SDRE method reduces to the sequential solution of Lyapunov equations, effectively enabling the computation of suboptimal feedback controls for two-dimensional PDEs. Numerical tests for the Sine-Gordon, degenerate Zeldovich, and viscous Burgers’ PDEs are presented, providing a thorough experimental assessment of the proposed methodology

Gradient Methods for Large-Scale and Distributed Linear Quadratic Control

This thesis considers methods for synthesis of linear quadratic controllers for large-scale, interconnected systems. Conventional methods that solve the linear quadratic control problem are only applicable to systems with moderate size, due to the rapid increase in both computational time and memory requirements as the system size increases. The methods presented in this thesis show a much slower increase in these requirements when faced with system matrices with a sparse structure. Hence, they are useful for control design for systems of large order, since they usually have sparse systems matrices. An equally important feature of the methods is that the controllers are restricted to have a distributed nature, meaning that they respect a potential interconnection structure of the system. The controllers considered in the thesis have the same structure as the centralized LQG solution, that is, they are consisting of a state predictor and feedback from the estimated states. Strategies for determining the feedback matrix and predictor matrix separately, are suggested. The strategies use gradient directions of the cost function to iteratively approach a locally optimal solution in either problem. A scheme to determine bounds on the degree of suboptimality of the partial solution in every iteration, is presented. It is also shown that these bounds can be combined to give a bound on the degree of suboptimality of the full output feedback controller. Another method that treats the synthesis of the feedback matrix and predictor matrix simultaneously is also presented. The functionality of the developed methods is illustrated by an application, where the methods are used to compute controllers for a large deformable mirror, found in a telescope to compensate for atmospheric disturbances. The model of the mirror is obtained by discretizing a partial differential equation. This gives a linear, sparse representation of the mirror with a very large state space, which is suitable for the methods presented in the thesis. The performance of the controllers is evaluated using performance measures from the adaptive optics community

Statistical Proper Orthogonal Decomposition for model reduction in feedback control

Feedback control synthesis for nonlinear, parameter-dependent fluid flow control problems is considered. The optimal feedback law requires the solution of the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) PDE suffering the curse of dimensionality. This is mitigated by Model Order Reduction (MOR) techniques, where the system is projected onto a lower-dimensional subspace, over which the feedback synthesis becomes feasible. However, existing MOR methods assume at least one relaxation of generality, that is, the system should be linear, or stable, or deterministic. We propose a MOR method called Statistical POD (SPOD), which is inspired by the Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD), but extends to more general systems. Random samples of the original dynamical system are drawn, treating time and initial condition as random variables similarly to possible parameters in the model, and employing a stabilizing closed-loop control. The reduced subspace is chosen to minimize the empirical risk, which is shown to estimate the expected risk of the MOR solution with respect to the distribution of all possible outcomes of the controlled system. This reduced model is then used to compute a surrogate of the feedback control function in the Tensor Train (TT) format that is computationally fast to evaluate online. Using unstable Burgers' and Navier-Stokes equations, it is shown that the SPOD control is more accurate than Linear Quadratic Regulator or optimal control derived from a model reduced onto the standard POD basis, and faster than the direct optimal control of the original system