Decentralized control techniques for large-scale civil structural systems

As the state of structural control technology advances towards smaller, more power efficient and less expensive control devices, future structural control systems are likely to be deployed with large numbers of control devices and sensors. The result is a large-scale control problem characterized by having high sensor and actuator density. Such systems are better suited for decentralized control. Decentralized control techniques decompose the global system to a set of local sub-systems for which local controllers are designed, This paper discusses three decentralized control techniques: modified LQR control, decentralized optimal control, and market-based control. A 20-story analytical structure, employing semi-active control devices, is used as the benchmark structure for comparing the performance and power consumption characteristics of the various control techniques considered.