Scalable Distributed Nonlinear Control Under Flatness-Preserving Coupling

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Yang, Fengjun, Welde, Jake, Matni, Nikolai
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Yang, Fengjun
Welde, Jake
Matni, Nikolai
author_facet Yang, Fengjun
Welde, Jake
Matni, Nikolai
contents We study distributed control for a network of nonlinear, differentially flat subsystems subject to dynamic coupling. Although differential flatness simplifies planning and control for isolated subsystems, the presence of coupling can destroy this property for the overall joint system. Focusing on subsystems in pure-feedback form, we identify a class of compatible lower-triangular dynamic couplings that preserve flatness and guarantee that the flat outputs of the subsystems remain the flat outputs of the coupled system. Further, we show that the joint flatness diffeomorphism can be constructed from those of the individual subsystems and, crucially, its sparsity structure reflects that of the coupling. Exploiting this structure, we synthesize a distributed tracking controller that computes control actions from local information only, thereby ensuring scalability. We validate our proposed framework on a simulated example of planar quadrotors dynamically coupled via aerodynamic downwash, and show that the distributed controller achieves accurate trajectory tracking.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_02138
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Scalable Distributed Nonlinear Control Under Flatness-Preserving Coupling
Yang, Fengjun
Welde, Jake
Matni, Nikolai
Systems and Control
We study distributed control for a network of nonlinear, differentially flat subsystems subject to dynamic coupling. Although differential flatness simplifies planning and control for isolated subsystems, the presence of coupling can destroy this property for the overall joint system. Focusing on subsystems in pure-feedback form, we identify a class of compatible lower-triangular dynamic couplings that preserve flatness and guarantee that the flat outputs of the subsystems remain the flat outputs of the coupled system. Further, we show that the joint flatness diffeomorphism can be constructed from those of the individual subsystems and, crucially, its sparsity structure reflects that of the coupling. Exploiting this structure, we synthesize a distributed tracking controller that computes control actions from local information only, thereby ensuring scalability. We validate our proposed framework on a simulated example of planar quadrotors dynamically coupled via aerodynamic downwash, and show that the distributed controller achieves accurate trajectory tracking.
title Scalable Distributed Nonlinear Control Under Flatness-Preserving Coupling
topic Systems and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.02138