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Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10012/5745

Title: Decentralized Regulation of Nonlinear Discrete-Time Multi-Agent Systems
Authors: Shams, Nasim Alsadat
Keywords: Decentralized control
Discrete-time systems
Graph theoretic models
Nonlinear control
Regulation
Stabilization methods
Approved Date: 20-Jan-2011
Date Submitted: 2011
Abstract: This thesis focuses on decentralized deadbeat output regulation of discrete-time nonlinear plants that are composed of multiple agents. These agents interact, via scalar-valued signals, in a known structured way represented with a graph. This work is motivated by applications where it is infeasible and/or undesirable to introduce control action within each plant agent; instead, control agents are introduced to interact with certain plant agents, where each control agent focuses on regulating a specific plant agent, called its target. Then, two analyses are carried out to determine if regulation is achieved: targeting analysis is used to determine if control laws can be found to regulate all target agents, then growing analysis is used to determine the effect of those control laws on non-target plant agents. The strength of this novel approach is the intuitively-appealing notion of each control agent focusing on the regulation of just one plant agent. This work goes beyond previous research by generalizing the class of allowable plant dynamics, considering not only arbitrary propagation times through plant agents, but also allowing for non-symmetrical influence between the agents. Moreover, new necessary and sufficient algebraic conditions are derived to determine when targeting succeeds. The main contribution of this work, however, is the development of new easily-verifiable conditions necessary for targeting and/or growing to succeed. These new conditions are valuable due to their simplicity and scalability to large systems. They concern the positioning of control agents and targets as well as the propagation time of signals through the plant, and they help significantly with design decisions. Various graph structures (such as queues, grids, spiders, rings, etc.) are considered and for each, these conditions are used to develop a control scheme with the minimum number of control agents needed.
Program: Electrical and Computer Engineering
Department: Electrical and Computer Engineering
Degree: Master of Applied Science
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10012/5745
Appears in Collections:Faculty of Engineering Theses and Dissertations
Electronic Theses and Dissertations (UW)

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