A local search algorithm for plug-and-play reconfiguration of interconnected systems

This paper proposes a novel method to organise the reconfiguration process of decentralised controllers after actuator failures have occurred in an interconnected system. If an actuator fails in a subsystem, only the corresponding control station should be reconfigured, although the fault has effects on other subsystems through the physical couplings. The focus of this paper is on the organisation of the reconfiguration process without a central coordinator. Design agents exist for each of the subsystems which store the subsystem model. A local algorithm is presented to gather models from neighbouring design agents with the aim to set-up a model which describes the behaviour of the faulty subsystem including its neighbours. Furthermore, local reconfiguration conditions are proposed to design a virtual actuator so as to guarantee stability of the overall system. As a consequence, the design agents “play” together to gather the model of the faulty subsystem before the reconfigured control station is “plugged-in” the control hardware. Plug-and-play reconfiguration is illustrated by an interconnected tank system.