Decentralized constraint enforcement using reference governors

This paper presents an application of reference governors to decentralized constrained systems that consist of multiple connected subsystems. Our approach is based on developing a reference governor for each subsystem and ensuring constraint satisfaction for a tightened set of constraints. In such a way, constraints are handled locally on a subsystem level but ensure constraint-admissibility for the entire system. This research is motivated by its potential use for distributed control of aircraft engines and we report an aircraft engine example to illustrate the theory. We also consider the case of large-scale systems and develop results that do not require the reconstruction of the full state of the plant in each of the subsystems. An example based on interconnected mass-spring-damper systems illustrates the results.