Self-organization in networked control systems

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Jan Lunze
• Subject Area: Automation, Mechatronics, Control Systems, Intelligent Technical Systems, Robotics
• Term: from 2015 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 269706131

The increasing interconnection of technical systems gives the opportunity of exchanging information between the controllers of subsystems, if this is necessary to guarantee a desired control performance. In this project methods shall be developed, where the local controllers decide according to local model information and measurements which interconnections are appropriate in the current situation. Since these control strategies should not have a coordination component, the communication structure arises through self-organization.The most important scientific issues in the development of such control methods is to establish a link between the communication structure of the local controllers and the control performance that results from this structure for certain disturbances. From this, locally applicable rules have to be derived that connect the local controllers according to the current situation. The control methods shall be developed for multi-agent systems as well as for physically interconnected systems and shall furthermore include situations in which the local controllers request information from other local controllers. The methods are to be investigated in simulations and an experimental setup.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants