Distributed power allocation for vehicle management systems

Abstract

We consider the problem of designing distributed control protocols -for aircraft vehicle management systems-that cooperatively allocate electric power while meeting certain higher level goals and requirements, and dynamically reacting to the changes in the internal system state and external environment. A decentralized control problem is posed where each power distribution unit is equipped with a controller that implements a local protocol to allocate power to a certain subset of loads. We use linear temporal logic as the specification language for describing correct behaviors of the system (e.g., safe operating conditions) as well as the admissible dynamic behavior of the environment due to, for example, wind gusts and changes in system health. We start with a global specification and decompose it into local ones. These decompositions allow the protocols for each local controller to be separately synthesized and locally implemented while guaranteeing the global specifications to hold. Through a design example, we show that by refining the interface rules between power distribution units, it is possible to reduce the total power requirement.

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