1,036 research outputs found
Stochastic and Optimal Distributed Control for Energy Optimization and Spatially Invariant Systems
Improving energy efficiency and grid responsiveness of buildings requires sensing, computing and communication to enable stochastic decision-making and distributed operations. Optimal control synthesis plays a significant role in dealing with the complexity and uncertainty associated with the energy systems.
The dissertation studies general area of complex networked systems that consist of interconnected components and usually operate in uncertain environments. Specifically, the contents of this dissertation include tools using stochastic and optimal distributed control to overcome these challenges and improve the sustainability of electric energy systems.
The first tool is developed as a unifying stochastic control approach for improving energy efficiency while meeting probabilistic constraints. This algorithm is applied to demonstrate energy efficiency improvement in buildings and improving operational efficiency of virtualized web servers, respectively. Although all the optimization in this technique is in the form of convex optimization, it heavily relies on semidefinite programming (SP). A generic SP solver can handle only up to hundreds of variables. This being said, for a large scale system, the existing off-the-shelf algorithms may not be an appropriate tool for optimal control. Therefore, in the sequel I will exploit optimization in a distributed way.
The second tool is itself a concrete study which is optimal distributed control for spatially invariant systems. Spatially invariance means the dynamics of the system do not vary as we translate along some spatial axis. The optimal H2 [H-2] decentralized control problem is solved by computing an orthogonal projection on a class of Youla parameters with a decentralized structure. Optimal H∞ [H-infinity] performance is posed as a distance minimization in a general L∞ [L-infinity] space from a vector function to a subspace with a mixed L∞ and H∞ space structure. In this framework, the dual and pre-dual formulations lead to finite dimensional convex optimizations which approximate the optimal solution within desired accuracy. Furthermore, a mixed L2 [L-2] /H∞ synthesis problem for spatially invariant systems as trade-offs between transient performance and robustness. Finally, we pursue to deal with a more general networked system, i.e. the Non-Markovian decentralized stochastic control problem, using stochastic maximum principle via Malliavin Calculus
Towards Stabilization of Distributed Systems under Denial-of-Service
In this paper, we consider networked distributed systems in the presence of
Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks, namely attacks that prevent transmissions over
the communication network. First, we consider a simple and typical scenario
where communication sequence is purely Round-robin and we explicitly calculate
a bound of attack frequency and duration, under which the interconnected
large-scale system is asymptotically stable. Second, trading-off system
resilience and communication load, we design a hybrid transmission strategy
consisting of Zeno-free distributed event-triggered control and Round-robin. We
show that with lower communication loads, the hybrid communication strategy
enables the systems to have the same resilience as in pure Round-robin
System Level Synthesis
This article surveys the System Level Synthesis framework, which presents a
novel perspective on constrained robust and optimal controller synthesis for
linear systems. We show how SLS shifts the controller synthesis task from the
design of a controller to the design of the entire closed loop system, and
highlight the benefits of this approach in terms of scalability and
transparency. We emphasize two particular applications of SLS, namely
large-scale distributed optimal control and robust control. In the case of
distributed control, we show how SLS allows for localized controllers to be
computed, extending robust and optimal control methods to large-scale systems
under practical and realistic assumptions. In the case of robust control, we
show how SLS allows for novel design methodologies that, for the first time,
quantify the degradation in performance of a robust controller due to model
uncertainty -- such transparency is key in allowing robust control methods to
interact, in a principled way, with modern techniques from machine learning and
statistical inference. Throughout, we emphasize practical and efficient
computational solutions, and demonstrate our methods on easy to understand case
studies.Comment: To appear in Annual Reviews in Contro
Optimal Control of Two-Player Systems with Output Feedback
In this article, we consider a fundamental decentralized optimal control
problem, which we call the two-player problem. Two subsystems are
interconnected in a nested information pattern, and output feedback controllers
must be designed for each subsystem. Several special cases of this architecture
have previously been solved, such as the state-feedback case or the case where
the dynamics of both systems are decoupled. In this paper, we present a
detailed solution to the general case. The structure of the optimal
decentralized controller is reminiscent of that of the optimal centralized
controller; each player must estimate the state of the system given their
available information and apply static control policies to these estimates to
compute the optimal controller. The previously solved cases benefit from a
separation between estimation and control which allows one to compute the
control and estimation gains separately. This feature is not present in
general, and some of the gains must be solved for simultaneously. We show that
computing the required coupled estimation and control gains amounts to solving
a small system of linear equations
A Fast Algorithm for Sparse Controller Design
We consider the task of designing sparse control laws for large-scale systems
by directly minimizing an infinite horizon quadratic cost with an
penalty on the feedback controller gains. Our focus is on an improved algorithm
that allows us to scale to large systems (i.e. those where sparsity is most
useful) with convergence times that are several orders of magnitude faster than
existing algorithms. In particular, we develop an efficient proximal Newton
method which minimizes per-iteration cost with a coordinate descent active set
approach and fast numerical solutions to the Lyapunov equations. Experimentally
we demonstrate the appeal of this approach on synthetic examples and real power
networks significantly larger than those previously considered in the
literature
Distributed Control of Positive Systems
A system is called positive if the set of non-negative states is left
invariant by the dynamics. Stability analysis and controller optimization are
greatly simplified for such systems. For example, linear Lyapunov functions and
storage functions can be used instead of quadratic ones. This paper shows how
such methods can be used for synthesis of distributed controllers. It also
shows that stability and performance of such control systems can be verified
with a complexity that scales linearly with the number of interconnections.
Several results regarding scalable synthesis and verfication are derived,
including a new stronger version of the Kalman-Yakubovich-Popov lemma for
positive systems. Some main results are stated for frequency domain models
using the notion of positively dominated system. The analysis is illustrated
with applications to transportation networks, vehicle formations and power
systems
- …