In this work we determine the time-domain dynamics of a complex mechanical network of integer-order components, e.g., springs and dampers, with an overall transfer function described by implicitly defined operators. This type of transfer functions can be used to describe very large scale dynamics of robot formations, multi-agent systems or viscoelastic phenomena. Such large-scale integrated systems are becoming increasingly important in modern engineering systems, and an accurate model of their dynamics is very important to achieve their control. We give a time domain representation for the dynamics of the system by using a complex variable analysis to find its impulse response. Furthermore, we validate how our infinite order model can be used to describe dynamics of finite order networks, which can be useful as a model reduction method.
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Dynamics Concentration of Large-Scale Tightly-Connected Networks
The ability to achieve coordinated behavior --engineered or emergent-- on networked systems has attracted widespread interest over several fields. This has led to remarkable advances on the development of a theoretical understanding of the conditions under which agents within a network can reach agreement (consensus) or develop coordinated behaviors such as synchronization. However, fewer advances have been made toward explaining another commonly observed phenomena in tightly-connected networks systems: output responses of nodes in the networks are almost identical to each other despite heterogeneity in their individual dynamics. In this work, we leverage tools from high-dimensional probability to provide an initial answer to this phenomena. More precisely, we show that for linear networks of nodal random transfer functions, as the networks size and connectivity grows, every node in the network follows the same response to an input or disturbance irrespectively of the source of this input. We term this behavior as dynamics concentration as it stems from the fact that the network transfer matrix uniformly converges in probability to a unique dynamic response --i.e., it concentrates-- determined by the distribution of the random transfer function of each node. We further discuss the implications of our analysis in the context of model reduction and robustness, and provide numerical evidence that similar phenomena occur in small deterministic networks over a properly defined frequency band.
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- PAR ID:
- 10132912
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Conference on Decision and Control
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 758 to 763
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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