Modeling, analysis and design of a closed-loop power regulation system for multimedia embedded devices

In this paper, the plant modeling as well as the theoretical analysis and design and simulation of a closed-loop control system for the power consumption of a hand-held multimedia embedded device are presented. This is a first validation step for a target system in which the power consumption will be regulated based on estimation feedback. Prior to the availability of power estimation data, actual power consumption measurements are used to obtain a mathematical model of the controlled plant. Then, classic control-theory methods are applied to get a closed-loop integral controller able to regulate the power consumption of a video decoder running in an embedded development platform. The simulation results show how the system output keeps track of the set point without average steady-state error, even in the presence of consumption fluctuations, thus announcing promising results for the closed-loop approach to the final power regulation system.