Distributed Synthesis of State-Dependent Switching Control
For control engineers, this provides a distributed, correct-by-design synthesis method for state-dependent switching control, demonstrated on a practical system.
The paper presents a correct-by-design method for synthesizing state-dependent switching control for linear discrete-time switching systems, using iterated backward reachability and linear programming. The method was successfully applied to a distributed control of a floor heating system with 11 rooms and 2048 switching modes.
We present a correct-by-design method of state-dependent control synthesis for linear discrete-time switching systems. Given an objective region R of the state space, the method builds a capture set S and a control which steers any element of S into R. The method works by iterated backward reachability from R. More precisely, S is given as a parametric extension of R, and the maximum value of the parameter is solved by linear programming. The method can also be used to synthesize a stability control which maintains indefinitely within R all the states starting at R. We explain how the synthesis method can be performed in a distributed manner. The method has been implemented and successfully applied to the synthesis of a distributed control of a concrete floor heating system with 11 rooms and 2^11 = 2048 switching modes.