This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
The proposal focuses on the design of decentralized controller for dynamic networks. The objective is to investigate the design for three application areas, virus spreading control, air traffic flow management, and communication-agent algorithmic/control Methods will be developed for decentralized controller design, that enable the controllers to exploit the network topology and overcome constrains and variations in a fully distributed way.
Intellectual Merit
The research work focuses on the design of high-performance decentralized controller for dynamic networks. We propose two novel methods, one based on the static linear time-invariant (LTI) controller case, and the other on the dynamic LTI controller case. Optimization of a cost function and use of dual optimization will be employed in the static design approach to find a controller. A multi-derivative and multi-delay design methodology for synthesizing dynamic LTI decentralized controller will be used in the dynamic case. The proposed research work will advance the knowledge in the area of control theory, and provide new techniques for the important problem of decentralized control in the presence of system dynamics.
Broader Impacts
The proposed research will introduce the undergraduate students to control theory research. The educational objectives include research training of undergraduate students through senior projects and course development. The research results will be integrated in a core course ?Network Structure Dynamics, and Controls? (EE 503) at Washington State University.
