Decentralized static output-feedback control via networked communication

This paper provides an approach to the design of decentralized switched output-feedback controllers for large-scale linear plants where the controllers, sensors and actuators are connected via a shared communication network subject to time-varying transmission intervals and delays. Due to the communication medium being shared, it is impossible to transmit all control commands and measurement data simultaneously over the communication network. As a consequence, a protocol is needed to orchestrate what data is sent over the network at each transmission instant. To effectively deal with the shared communication medium using static controllers, we adopt a switched controller structure that switches based on available control inputs at each transmission time. By taking a discrete-time switched linear system perspective, we are able to derive a general model that captures all these networked and decentralized control aspects. The proposed synthesis method is based on decomposing the closed-loop model into a multi-gain switched static output-feedback form. This decomposition allows for the formulation of linear matrix inequality based synthesis conditions which, if satisfied, provide stabilizing switched controllers, which are both decentralized and robust to network effects. A numerical example illustrates the aforementioned developed theory.