Networked piecewise-affine control systems

网络在我们的世界里无处不在。从以队形飞行的候鸟，到社会团体、无线网络、万维网，例子不胜枚举。特别是，控制系统领域是本提案的重点，它为理解、分析、设计和控制自组织和完全自主的网络提供了重要的潜力。对于这些多代理网络，最近对性能和可靠性的要求促使控制工程师从设计单个集中式控制器转向设计多个本地化控制器。在这种方法中，每个代理都有一个专用控制器，该控制器使用通信网络与来自其他代理的控制器共享信息。具有分散能力的网络控制的主要优点之一是，在一个控制器发生故障的情况下，分散的网络体系结构为系统提供了可靠性，而如果单个集中控制器发生故障，则会使整个系统处于危险之中。

Networks are pervasive in our world. From migrating birds flying in formation, to social groups, wireless networks, world-wide web, the examples are endless. In particular, the area of control systems, which is the focus of this proposal, offers an important potential to understand, analyze, design and control networks that are self-organizing and fully autonomous. For these multi-agent networks, recent demands on performance and reliability have caused control engineers to move from the design of a single centralized controller to the design of several localized controllers. In this approach, each agent has a dedicated controller that shares information with controllers from other agents using the communication network. One of the main advantages of networked control with decentralized capabilities is that in case of one controller having a fault, the decentralized architecture of the network offers reliability to the system whereas if a single centralized controller fails it will put the entire system into jeopardy.