On the risk-sensitive escape control for diffusion processes pertaining to an expanding construction of distributed control systems

Abstract

In this paper, we consider an expanding construction of a distributed control system, which is obtained by adding a new subsystem one after the other, until all $n$ subsystems, where $n \ge 2$, are included in the distributed control system. It is assumed that a small random perturbation enters only into the first subsystem and is then subsequently transmitted to the other subsystems. Moreover, for any $\ell \in \{2, ..., n\}$, the distributed control system, compatible with the expanding construction, which is obtained from the first $\ell$ subsystems, satisfies an appropriate H\"{o}rmander condition. As a result of this, the diffusion process is degenerate, i.e., the backward operator associated with it is a degenerate parabolic equation. Our main interest here is to prevent the diffusion process (that corresponds to a particular subsystem) from leaving a given bounded open domain. In particular, we consider a risk-sensitive version of the mean escape time criterion with respect to each of the subsystems. Using a variational representation, we characterize the risk-sensitive escape control for the diffusion process as the lower and upper values of an associated stochastic differential game. Finally, we comment on the implication of our results, where one is also interested in evaluating the performance of the risk-sensitive escape control, when there is some modeling error in the distributed control system.