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Debasish Chatterjee

Publications and source records attributed to Debasish Chatterjee.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

A jammer's perspective of reachability and LQ optimal control

This article treats two problems dealing with control of linear systems in the presence of a jammer that can sporadically turn off the control signal. The first problem treats the standard reachability problem, and the second treats the standard linear quadratic regulator problem under the above class of jamming signals. We provide necessary and sufficient conditions for optimality based on a nonsmooth Pontryagin maximum principle.

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Characterization of maximum hands-off control

Maximum hands-off control aims to maximize the length of time over which zero actuator values are applied to a system when executing specified control tasks. To tackle such problems, recent literature has investigated optimal control problems which penalize the size of the support of the control function and thereby lead to desired sparsity properties. This article gives the exact set of necessary conditions for a maximum hands-off optimal control problem using an $L_0$-(semi)norm, and also provides sufficient conditions for the optimality of such controls. Numerical example illustrates that adopting an $L_0$ cost leads to a sparse control, whereas an $L_1$-relaxation in singular problems leads to a non-sparse solution.

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The Stochastic Reach-Avoid Problem and Set Characterization for Diffusions

In this article we approach a class of stochastic reachability problems with state constraints from an optimal control perspective. Preceding approaches to solving these reachability problems are either confined to the deterministic setting or address almost-sure stochastic requirements. In contrast, we propose a methodology to tackle problems with less stringent requirements than almost sure. To this end, we first establish a connection between two distinct stochastic reach-avoid problems and three classes of stochastic optimal control problems involving discontinuous payoff functions. Subsequently, we focus on solutions of one of the classes of stochastic optimal control problems---the exit-time problem, which solves both the two reach-avoid problems mentioned above. We then derive a weak version of a dynamic programming principle (DPP) for the corresponding value function; in this direction our contribution compared to the existing literature is to develop techniques that admit discontinuous payoff functions. Moreover, based on our DPP, we provide an alternative characterization of the value function as a solution of a partial differential equation in the sense of discontinuous viscosity solutions, along with boundary conditions both in Dirichlet and viscosity senses. Theoretical justifications are also discussed to pave the way for deployment of off-the-shelf PDE solvers for numerical computations. Finally, we validate the performance of the proposed framework on the stochastic Zermelo navigation problem.

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Motion Planning for Continuous Time Stochastic Processes: A Dynamic Programming Approach

We study stochastic motion planning problems which involve a controlled process, with possibly discontinuous sample paths, visiting certain subsets of the state-space while avoiding others in a sequential fashion. For this purpose, we first introduce two basic notions of motion planning, and then establish a connection to a class of stochastic optimal control problems concerned with sequential stopping times. A weak dynamic programming principle (DPP) is then proposed, which characterizes the set of initial states that admit a control enabling the process to execute the desired maneuver with probability no less than some pre-specified value. The proposed DPP comprises auxiliary value functions defined in terms of discontinuous payoff functions. A concrete instance of the use of this novel DPP in the case of diffusion processes is also presented. In this case, we establish that the aforementioned set of initial states can be characterized as the level set of a discontinuous viscosity solution to a sequence of partial differential equations, for which the first one has a known boundary condition, while the boundary conditions of the subsequent ones are determined by the solutions to the preceding steps. Finally, the generality and flexibility of the theoretical results are illustrated on an example involving biological switches.

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A graph theoretic approach to input-to-state stability of switched systems

This article deals with input-to-state stability (ISS) of discrete-time switched systems. Given a family of nonlinear systems with exogenous inputs, we present a class of switching signals under which the resulting switched system is ISS. We allow non-ISS systems in the family and our analysis involves graph-theoretic arguments. A weighted digraph is associated to the switched system, and a switching signal is expressed as an infinite walk on this digraph, both in a natural way. Our class of stabilizing switching signals (infinite walks) is periodic in nature and affords simple algorithmic construction.

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Generalized switching signals for input-to-state stability of switched systems

This article deals with input-to-state stability (ISS) of continuous-time switched nonlinear systems. Given a family of systems with exogenous inputs such that not all systems in the family are ISS, we characterize a new and general class of switching signals under which the resulting switched system is ISS. Our stabilizing switching signals allow the number of switches to grow faster than an affine function of the length of a time interval, unlike in the case of average dwell time switching. We also recast a subclass of average dwell time switching signals in our setting and establish analogs of two representative prior results.

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Deterministic and probabilistic algorithms for stabilizing discrete-time switched linear systems

In this article we study algorithmic synthesis of the class of stabilizing switching signals for discrete-time switched linear systems proposed in [12]. A weighted digraph is associated in a natural way to a switched system, and the switching signal is expressed as an infinite walk on this weighted digraph. We employ graph-theoretic tools and discuss different algorithms for designing walks whose corresponding switching signals satisfy the stabilizing switching conditions proposed in [12]. We also address the issue of how likely/generic it is for a family of systems to admit stabilizing switching signals, and under mild assumptions give sufficient conditions for the same. Our solutions have both deterministic and probabilistic flavours.

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Stability and performance of stochastic predictive control

This article is concerned with stability and performance of controlled stochastic processes under receding horizon policies. We carry out a systematic study of methods to guarantee stability under receding horizon policies via appropriate selections of cost functions in the underlying finite-horizon optimal control problem. We also obtain quantitative bounds on the performance of the system under receding horizon policies as measured by the long-run expected average cost. The results are illustrated with the help of several simple examples.

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Stabilizing switching signals for switched linear systems

This article deals with stability of continuous-time switched linear systems under constrained switching. Given a family of linear systems, possibly containing unstable dynamics, we characterize a new class of switching signals under which the switched linear system generated by it and the family of systems is globally asymptotically stable. Our characterization of such stabilizing switching signals involves the asymptotic frequency of switching, the asymptotic fraction of activation of the constituent systems, and the asymptotic densities of admissible transitions among them. Our techniques employ multiple Lyapunov-like functions, and extend preceding results both in scope and applicability.

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Isospectral flows on a class of finite-dimensional Jacobi matrices

We present a new matrix-valued isospectral ordinary differential equation that asymptotically block-diagonalizes $n\times n$ zero-diagonal Jacobi matrices employed as its initial condition. This o.d.e.\ features a right-hand side with a nested commutator of matrices, and structurally resembles the double-bracket o.d.e.\ studied by R.W.\ Brockett in 1991. We prove that its solutions converge asymptotically, that the limit is block-diagonal, and above all, that the limit matrix is defined uniquely as follows: For $n$ even, a block-diagonal matrix containing $2\times 2$ blocks, such that the super-diagonal entries are sorted by strictly increasing absolute value. Furthermore, the off-diagonal entries in these $2\times 2$ blocks have the same sign as the respective entries in the matrix employed as initial condition. For $n$ odd, there is one additional $1\times 1$ block containing a zero that is the top left entry of the limit matrix. The results presented here extend some early work of Kac and van Moerbeke.

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Uniform moment bounds of multi-dimensional functions of discrete-time stochastic processes

We establish conditions for uniform $r$-th moment bound of certain $\R^d$-valued functions of a discrete-time stochastic process taking values in a general metric space. The conditions include an appropriate negative drift together with a uniform $L_p$ bound on the jumps of the process for $p > r + 1$. Applications of the result are given in connection to iterated function systems and biochemical reaction networks.

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An Excursion-Theoretic Approach to Stability of Discrete-Time Stochastic Hybrid Systems

We address stability of a class of Markovian discrete-time stochastic hybrid systems. This class of systems is characterized by the state-space of the system being partitioned into a safe or target set and its exterior, and the dynamics of the system being different in each domain. We give conditions for $L_1$-boundedness of Lyapunov functions based on certain negative drift conditions outside the target set, together with some more minor assumptions. We then apply our results to a wide class of randomly switched systems (or iterated function systems), for which we give conditions for global asymptotic stability almost surely and in $L_1$. The systems need not be time-homogeneous, and our results apply to certain systems for which functional-analytic or martingale-based estimates are difficult or impossible to get.

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Stochastic receding horizon control with output feedback and bounded control inputs

We provide a solution to the problem of receding horizon control for stochastic discrete-time systems with bounded control inputs and imperfect state measurements. For a suitable choice of control policies, we show that the finite-horizon optimization problem to be solved on-line is convex and successively feasible. Due to the inherent nonlinearity of the feedback loop, a slight extension of the Kalman filter is exploited to estimate the state optimally in mean-square sense. We show that the receding horizon implementation of the resulting control policies renders the state of the overall system mean-square bounded under mild assumptions. Finally, we discuss how some of the quantities required by the finite-horizon optimization problem can be computed off-line, reducing the on-line computation, and present some numerical examples.

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Mean-square boundedness of stochastic networked control systems with bounded control inputs

We consider the problem of controlling marginally stable linear systems using bounded control inputs for networked control settings in which the communication channel between the remote controller and the system is unreliable. We assume that the states are perfectly observed, but the control inputs are transmitted over a noisy communication channel. Under mild hypotheses on the noise introduced by the control communication channel and large enough control authority, we construct a control policy that renders the state of the closed-loop system mean-square bounded.

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Attaining mean square boundedness of a marginally stable noisy linear system with a bounded control input

We construct control policies that ensure bounded variance of a noisy marginally stable linear system in closed-loop. It is assumed that the noise sequence is a mutually independent sequence of random vectors, enters the dynamics affinely, and has bounded fourth moment. The magnitude of the control is required to be of the order of the first moment of the noise, and the policies we obtain are simple and computable.

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Maximizing the probability of attaining a target prior to extinction

We present a dynamic programming-based solution to the problem of maximizing the probability of attaining a target set before hitting a cemetery set for a discrete-time Markov control process. Under mild hypotheses we establish that there exists a deterministic stationary policy that achieves the maximum value of this probability. We demonstrate how the maximization of this probability can be computed through the maximization of an expected total reward until the first hitting time to either the target or the cemetery set. Martingale characterizations of thrifty, equalizing, and optimal policies in the context of our problem are also established.

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On the connections between PCTL and Dynamic Programming

Probabilistic Computation Tree Logic (PCTL) is a well-known modal logic which has become a standard for expressing temporal properties of finite-state Markov chains in the context of automated model checking. In this paper, we give a definition of PCTL for noncountable-space Markov chains, and we show that there is a substantial affinity between certain of its operators and problems of Dynamic Programming. After proving some uniqueness properties of the solutions to the latter, we conclude the paper with two examples to show that some recovery strategies in practical applications, which are naturally stated as reach-avoid problems, can be actually viewed as particular cases of PCTL formulas.

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