Episodically adapted network-based controllers

Abstract

We consider the problem of distributing a control policy across a network of interconnected units. Distributing controllers in this way has a number of potential advantages, especially in terms of robustness, as the failure of a single unit can be compensated by the activity of others. However, it is not obvious a priori how such network-based controllers should be constructed for any given system and control objective. Here, we propose a synthesis procedure for obtaining dynamical networks that enact well-defined control policies in a model-free manner. We specifically consider an augmented state space consisting of both the plant state and the network states. Solution of an optimization problem in this augmented state space produces a desired objective and specification of the network dynamics. Because of the analytical tractability of this method, we are able to provide convergence and robustness assessments