Decentralized overlapping tracking control

In this paper, a new methodology for decentralized overlapping tracking control of complex or large-scale systems is proposed. The methodology is demonstrated in the case of multiple systems moving in a plane. Starting from the given information structure constraints, the expansion/contraction paradigm based on the restriction conditions is applied. The local design provides tracking controllers for the extracted subsystems; contraction is done according to the inclusion principle and results in a stable controller provided the system graph has a directed spanning tree. A specific methodology based on sequential LQ optimization is proposed for local controller design.