Decentralized control based on globally optimal estimation

A new method for globally optimal estimation in decentralized sensor-networks is applied to the decentralized control problem. The resulting approach is proven to be optimal when the nodes have access to all information in the network. More precisely, we utilize an algorithm for optimal distributed estimation in order to obtain local estimates whose combination yields the globally optimal estimate. When the interconnectivity is high, the local estimates are almost optimal, which motivates the application of the principle of separation. Thus, we optimize the controller and finally obtain a flexible algorithm, whose quality is evaluated in different scenarios. In applications where the strong requirements on a perfect communication cannot be guaranteed, we derive quality bounds by help of a detailed evaluation of the algorithm. When information is regularly exchanged, it is demonstrated that the algorithm performs almost optimally and therefore, offers system designers a flexible and easy to implement approach. The field of applications lies within the area of strongly networked systems, in particular, when communication disturbances cannot be foreseen or when the network structure is too complicated to apply optimized regulators.