Control of interconnected systems of finite spatial extent

In this paper, a new approach is presented for the control large-scale spatially distributed systems. These systems are encountered in several applications such as automated vehicles in a platoon, micro electro mechanical systems and paper machine processes. In order to obtain tractable algorithms, existing methods for the control of large-scale systems assume that they are spatially invariant, which usually means that the systems considered have infinite spatial extent. This paper shows how to achieve spatial invariance for systems that are finite in space, thus making the tractable linear matrix inequality-based algorithms for the control of spatially invariant systems available for practical application.