Multi-agent based federated control of large-scale systems with application to ship roll control

Large-scale systems refer to systems that consist of many interconnected local systems. Conventional centralized control schemes are not suitable for such large-scale systems because of their complex local and global dynamic behavior as well as computational difficulties. This paper introduces the general framework of an agent-based federated control motivated by the political structure where partially self-governing states are united by a federal government. Likewise, a multi-agent based federated control system is composed of local autonomous subsystems (agent-based controllers) that cooperate to provide an overall (large-scale) system behavior. In this concept, each agent has partial observations of the state of other agents and executes the local control law correspondingly to satisfy the performance requirements at the overall system level. Preliminary results are presented on the general architecture of multi-agent federated control for local and global connective stability.