Stabilization of fixed modes in expansions of LTI systems

The objective of this note is to propose a method for stabilization of structurally fixed modes in expansions of LTI dynamic systems in the scope of overlapping decentralized control design based on the expansion/contraction framework, enabling successful design for a broader class of problems than considered so far. The method is based on a judicious choice of complementary matrices in the expanded space. Numerical examples are provided to illustrate simplicity and efficiency of the proposed approach.     

Decentralized energy supply: Suitability for the UK's industrial sectors

From the results reported here it is suggested that policy decisions about the potential contribution of decentralized energy supply systems to UK industrial energy requirements should be based on the suitability of individual sectors rather than averaged over all sectors. The suitability of decentralized energy sources is evaluated, based on a themodynamic match between source and demand. This suitability criterion is used to identify the most appropriate sector in manufacturing industries for the adoption of decentralized energy supply, leaving aside economic cost considerations and individual site requirements.     

Comments on “Equivalence of characterizations of fixed models”

In this note we present a proof to the conjecture given in the above paper, and therefore establish the equivalence of characterizations of fixed modes for the general case.     

Equivalent stochastic control problems

A decentralized stochastic control problem is called static if the observations available for any one decision do not depend on the other decisions. Otherwise it is called dynamic. We consider only problems with a finite number of decisions. A notion of equivalence between problems, suitable for complexity analysis, is defined. It turns out that a large class of dynamic problems can be reduced to equivalent static problems. The class includes all sequential discrete variable problems and some of the most studied continuous variable problems.     

非部分嵌套信息结构的LQG动态队决策问题的可解性（II）*

本文讨论非嵌套信息结构的递阶队决策问题和控制均享信息结构的LQG分散控制问题,文中首先证明这两类问题的信息结构都是“部分控制嵌入”的,进而给出最优策略(或控制)存在的充要条件和当此条件成立时最优策略(或控制)的表达式。     

Multi-loop design of multi-scale controllers for multivariable processes

Based on the recently proposed (SISO) multi-scale control scheme, a new approach is introduced to design multi-loop controllers for multivariable processes. The basic feature of the multi-scale control scheme is to decompose a given plant into a sum of basic modes. To achieve good nominal control performance and performance robustness, a set of sub-controllers are designed based on the plant modes in such a way that they are mutually enhanced with each other so as to optimize the overall control objective. It is shown that the designed multi-scale controller is equivalent to a conventional PID controller augmented with a filter. The multi-scale control scheme offers a systematic approach to designing multi-loop PID controllers augmented with filters. Numerical studies show that the proposed multi-loop multi-scale controllers provide improved nominal performance and performance robustness over some well-established multi-loop PID controller schemes.     

Theory and implementation of path planning by negotiation for decentralized agents

This paper presents a cooperative decentralized path-planning algorithm for a group of autonomous agents that provides guaranteed collision-free trajectories in real-time. The algorithm is robust with respect to arbitrary delays in the wireless traffic, possible sources being transmission time and error correction. Agents move on reserved areas which are guaranteed not to intersect, therefore ensuring safety. A handshaking procedure guarantees recent information states for the agents. Conflicts between agents are resolved by a cost-based negotiation process. The basic algorithm is augmented by the introduction of waypoints, which increase performance at the cost of additional wireless traffic. An implementation of the algorithm is tested in simulation and successfully applied to a real system of autonomous robots. The results are presented and discussed.     

Decentralized adaptive synchronization of an uncertain complex delayed dynamical network

In this paper, we investigate the locally and globally adaptive synchronization problem for an uncertain complex dynamical network with time-varying coupling delays based on the decentralized control. The coupling terms here are bounded by high-order polynomials with known gains that are ubiquitous in a large class of complex dynamical networks. We generalize the usual technology of searching for an appropriate coordinates transformation to change the network dynamics into a series of decoupled lower-dimensional systems. Several adaptive synchronization criteria are derived by constructing the Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional and Barbalat lemma, and the proposed criteria are simple in form and convenient for the practical engineering design. Numerical simulations illustrated by a nearest-neighbor coupling network verify the effectiveness of the proposed synchronization scheme.     

同兴垃圾发电厂DCS控制系统

重庆同兴垃圾发电厂采用的是德国马丁公司(原法国阿尔斯通公司)的逆推式炉排焚烧技术。本文叙述了焚烧技术的工艺流程、DCS控制系统的硬件构成及功能。以全厂集中操作与各工段分散控制相结合的系统运行模式,实现了垃圾焚烧发电厂整体生产过程的监控和低成本运行,提高了垃圾焚烧发电机组的自动化和管理水平。     

The capacitated multi-AGV scheduling problem with conflicting products: Model and a decentralized multi-agent approach

Automated guided vehicles (AGVs) are a key technology to facilitate flexible production systems in the context of Industry 4.0. This paper investigates an optimization model and a solution using a decentralized multi-agent approach for a new capacitated multi-AGV scheduling problem with conflicting products (CMASPCP) to take full advantage of AGVs. The novelty of the problem and our model lies in the introduction of AGV capacity constraints and constraints arising from conflicting products, i.e. products that cannot be transported together. As the new I4.0 paradigm tends towards decentralized control, we also present a decentralized multi-agent approach in which AGVs autonomously coordinate to solve the task. The performance of the proposed decentralized approach is compared to a mixed-integer linear programming model on a set of 110 problem instances with different sizes and degrees of complexity. The obtained results show that the proposed decentralized multi-agent approach is effective and competitive in terms of the solution quality and computational time.