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Cooperative control of dynamical systems

 

Kontaktperson: Alexander Schwab

Zeitraum: seit 01.03.2018

Beschreibung:

1. Networked Systems
The progressive automation of technical systems requires new perspectives on the design of controllers. In the classical point of view, a controller is designed to achieve a desired behaviour of a plant, for example set point following or attenuation of disturbances. Modern concepts, on the other hand, focus on more global aims, for example the synchronisation of multiple oscillators. For this purpose, it is not possible to focus on a single plant, which leads to the concept of multi-agent systems.

Figure 1: Multi-agent system

Figure 1 shows a multi-agent system, which consists of physically uncoupled plants Pi , i ∈ {1, 2, . . . , N}, which are controlled by local controllers Ci . These controlled subsystems are able to communicate with each other via a given communication network to exchange control variables and set points or possibly model information in a more general framework.

2. Vehicle platooning
A typical example for multi-agent systems is a string of vehicles driving in a straight line as depicted in Figure 2. Each vehicle is equipped with a communication system and a velocity controller.

Figure 2: Vehicle platoon


The controllers are designed such that the following requirements are met:
(R1) Asymptotic synchronisation: In a steady state all vehicles should follow a reference trajectory with a specific safety distance.
(R2) Continuous progression: There should be no situation in which a vehicle moves backwards.
(R3) Collision avoidance: All distances should be non-negative.

These requirements state desired properties on the overall system. However, they have to be met using appropriate controllers on the subsystems.

 

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