Draco: Efficient Resource Management for Resource-Constrained Control Tasks

In many application areas, including control systems, careful management of system resources is key to providing the best application performance. Traditional control systems with multiple control loops statically allocate a fixed portion of the system resources to each controller based on their average or worst-case resource requirements. However, controllers´ resource needs vary depending on the jobs they perform and the state of the systems they control. A controller of a plant operating close to its equilibrium requires fewer resources than a controller of a plant operating far from its equilibrium point. The Draco dynamic rate control system exploits this fact by dynamically allocating resources to control systems based on system state. Our research demonstrates that Draco provides significantly better overall control performance with much less resources than static controllers. Our experimental evaluation shows that in the control scenarios we examined Draco provides up to 25 percent better control performance with 30 percent less resources.