Control reconfiguration of physically interconnected systems by decentralized virtual actuators

This paper presents a new method for decentralized control reconfiguration after actuator failures in physically interconnected systems by decentralized linear virtual actuators (DELVA). In a decentralized control system, the direct application of the design method for linear virtual actuators (LVA) based on the model of the overall system results in a centralized reconfigured controller. This paper introduces an alternative reconfiguration method that reconfigures only the faulty subsystem, retains the decentralized control structure and guarantees stability for the reconfigured overall system. Depending on reconfigurability conditions for the faulty subsystem, different DELVAs, including appropriate design rules, are presented. The main result is a design method for a DELVA that stabilizes the reconfigured control loop without requiring an information exchange over a digital network. The DELVA is illustrated by an application to a thermo-fluid process.