Performance-oriented communication topology design for large-scale interconnected systems

Communication networks provide a larger flexibility with respect to the control design of large-scale interconnected systems by allowing the information exchange between the local controllers of the subsystems. This paper introduces an approach for the design of the communication topology for the distributed control of large-scale interconnected systems in order to optimize the whole system's performance. First, a decentralized control law that stabilizes the overall interconnected systems is designed. Then the performance is improved by designing the distributed control law, i.e., allowing the controller of the subsystems to exchange information. As a novelty in this paper, the design of the communication topology between the controllers is considered. The problem is formulated as a mixed-integer optimization problem. Furthermore, it is shown that for a certain class of systems, the optimization problem can be reformulated resulting in a more explicit solution. In addition, it is shown that the proposed strategy also guarantees the stability of the whole system under the permanent communication link's failure. The results are validated through simulations.