Averaging Interaction in the Decentralized Control of Modularized Structures

Modularized structures are promising as present and future structures from the viewpoints of their high fault tolerance and easy extensible nature. Averaging interactive cooperation in the decentralized control of modularized structures is studied. The averaging interaction is defined as an interaction, which averages some physical properties of each module such as deformation, shape and stress. The most remarkable point of this study is that analogy of the heat conduction is used to realize the averaging interaction. The interaction based on a heat conduction equation enables us to grasp the physical sense of control parameters intuitively. Furthermore, the stable characteristics of heat conduction imply control stability. As case studies, two subjects are discussed: position control of the end-effector of a variable geometry truss, and deployment control of a modularized structure. Some numerical results are shown to illustrate the capability of the proposed control method.