BROADCAST CONTROL OF CELLULAR STOCHASTIC CONTROL SYSTEMS WITH APPLICATIONS TO ACTUATORS

摘要

A broadcast feedback method is presented for distributed stochastic control of an actuator system consisting of many cellular units. The method can be implemented for an artificial cellular actuator, consisting of many units of smart actuator material with a random signal generator. The output of the actuator system is an aggregate effect of numerous cellular units, each taking a bi-stable ON-OFF state. A central controller broadcasts the error between the aggregate output and a reference input. The central controller broadcasts the overall error signal to all the cellular units uniformly. In turn, each cellular unit makes a stochastic decision with a state transition probability modulated in relation to the broadcasted error. Even in the absence of deterministic coordination, the ensemble of the cellular units can track a given trajectory stably.