Sequential Synthesis of Distributed Controllers for Cascade Interconnected Systems

We consider the problem of designing distributed controllers to ensure passivity of a large-scale interconnection of linear subsystems connected in a cascade topology. The control design process needs to be carried out at the subsystem-level with no direct knowledge of the dynamics of other subsystems in the interconnection. We present a distributed approach to solve this problem, where subsystem-level controllers are locally designed in a sequence starting at one end of the cascade using only the dynamics of the particular subsystem, coupling with the immediately preceding subsystem and limited information from the preceding subsystem in the cascade to ensure passivity of the interconnected system up to that point. We demonstrate that this design framework also allows for new subsystems to be compositionally added to the interconnection without requiring redesign of the pre-existing controllers.Comment: Accepted to appear in the proceedings of the American Control Conference (ACC) 201

Provision of frequency stability of an islanded microgrid using a novel virtual inertia control and a fractional order cascade controller

Nowadays, the renewable energy sources in microgrids (MGs) have high participation to supply the consumer’s demand. In such MGs, the problems such as the system frequency stability, inertia, and damping reduction are threatened. To overcome this challenge, employing the virtual inertia control (VIC) concept in the MG structure could be considered as a viable solution to improve the system frequency response. Hence, this work proposes a novel modeling for VIC in an islanded MG that provides simultaneous emulation of the primary frequency control, virtual inertia, and damping. To show the efficiency of the proposed technique, a comparison is made between the dynamic performance of the proposed VIC and conventional VIC under different scenarios. The results indicate that the proposed VIC presents superior frequency performance in comparison with conventional VIC. In addition to VIC modeling, a new cascade controller based on three-degrees of freedom and fractional-order controllers (FOCs) is proposed as an MG secondary controller. The effectiveness of the proposed controller is compared to tilt-integral-derivative and FO proportional-integral-derivative controllers. The Squirrel search algorithm is utilized to obtain the optimal coefficients of the controllers. The results demonstrate that the proposed controller improves the MG frequency performance over other controllers. Eventually, the sensitivity analysis is performed to investigate the robustness of the proposed controller in the face of the variations of the parameters

High-level asynchronous system design using the ACK framework

Journal ArticleDesigning asynchronous circuits is becoming easier as a number of design styles are making the transition from research projects to real, usable tools. However, designing asynchronous "systems" is still a difficult problem. We define asynchronous systems to be medium to large digital systems whose descriptions include both datapath and control, that may involve non-trivial interface requirements, and whose control is too large to be synthesized in one large controller. ACK is a framework for designing high performance asynchronous systems of this type. In ACK we advocate an approach that begins with procedural level descriptions of control and datapath and results in a hybrid system that mixes a variety of hardware implementation styles including burst-mode AFSMs, macromodule circuits, and programmable control. We present our views on what makes asynchronous high level system design different from lower level circuit design, motivate our ACK approach, and demonstrate using an example system design

Optimal Control with Information Pattern Constraints

Despite the abundance of available literature that starts with the seminal paper of Wang and Davison almost forty years ago, when dealing with the problem of decentralized control for linear dynamical systems, one faces a surprising lack of general design methods, implementable via computationally tractable algorithms. This is mainly due to the fact that for decentralized control configurations, the classical control theoretical framework falls short in providing a systematic analysis of the stabilization problem, let alone cope with additional optimality criteria. Recently, a significant leap occurred through the theoretical machinery developed in Rotkowitz and Lall, IEEE-TAC, vol. 51, 2006, pp. 274-286 which unifies and consolidates many previous results, pinpoints certain tractable decentralized control structures, and outlines the most general known class of convex problems in decentralized control. The decentralized setting is modeled via the structured sparsity constraints paradigm, which proves to be a simple and effective way to formalize many decentralized configurations where the controller feature a given sparsity pattern. Rotkowitz and Lall propose a computationally tractable algorithm for the design of H2 optimal, decentralized controllers for linear and time invariant systems, provided that the plant is strongly stabilizable. The method is built on the assumption that the sparsity constraints imposed on the controller satisfy a certain condition (named quadratic invariance) with respect to the plant and that some decentralized, strongly stablizable, stabilizing controller is available beforehand. For this class of decentralized feedback configurations modeled via sparsity constraints, so called quadratically invariant, we provided complete solutions to several open problems. Firstly, the strong stabilizability assumption was removed via the so called coordinate free parametrization of all, sparsity constrained controllers. Next we have addressed the unsolved problem of stabilizability/stabilization via sparse controllers, using a particular form of the celebrated Youla parametrization. Finally, a new result related to the optimal disturbance attenuation problem in the presence of stable plant perturbations is presented. This result is also valid for quadratically invariant, decentralized feedback configurations. Each result provides a computational, numerically tractable algorithm which is meaningful in the synthesis of sparsity constrained optimal controllers

The SLH framework for modeling quantum input-output networks

Many emerging quantum technologies demand precise engineering and control over networks consisting of quantum mechanical degrees of freedom connected by propagating electromagnetic fields, or quantum input-output networks. Here we review recent progress in theory and experiment related to such quantum input-output networks, with a focus on the SLH framework, a powerful modeling framework for networked quantum systems that is naturally endowed with properties such as modularity and hierarchy. We begin by explaining the physical approximations required to represent any individual node of a network, eg. atoms in cavity or a mechanical oscillator, and its coupling to quantum fields by an operator triple $(S,L,H)$. Then we explain how these nodes can be composed into a network with arbitrary connectivity, including coherent feedback channels, using algebraic rules, and how to derive the dynamics of network components and output fields. The second part of the review discusses several extensions to the basic SLH framework that expand its modeling capabilities, and the prospects for modeling integrated implementations of quantum input-output networks. In addition to summarizing major results and recent literature, we discuss the potential applications and limitations of the SLH framework and quantum input-output networks, with the intention of providing context to a reader unfamiliar with the field.Comment: 60 pages, 14 figures. We are still interested in receiving correction

Robust Control

The need to be tolerant to changes in the control systems or in the operational environment of systems subject to unknown disturbances has generated new control methods that are able to deal with the non-parametrized disturbances of systems, without adapting itself to the system uncertainty but rather providing stability in the presence of errors bound in a model. With this approach in mind and with the intention to exemplify robust control applications, this book includes selected chapters that describe models of H-infinity loop, robust stability and uncertainty, among others. Each robust control method and model discussed in this book is illustrated by a relevant example that serves as an overview of the theoretical and practical method in robust control