arXiv subjects

Florian Dorfler

Publications and source records attributed to Florian Dorfler.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Bounded Linear Programs for Data-Driven Optimal Control via Moment-Matching

Linear programming (LP) formulations offer a conceptually elegant approach to infinite-horizon, model-free nonlinear optimal control in continuous spaces. However, in addition to the curse of dimensionality, their practical use is limited by the difficulty of consistently obtaining bounded solutions. In this work, we use moment-matching techniques to derive sufficient boundedness conditions in terms of the available dataset and the cost vector of the LP. Moreover, we discuss practical design methods for nonlinear systems and polynomial features.

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arXiv2026

A Data-Enabled Primal-Dual Approach for Policy Learning with SDP Formulations

This paper develops a data-enabled primal-dual framework for learning optimal control policies for unknown linear discrete-time systems from online data. The proposed approach views the data-dependent control synthesis problem as a time-varying semidefinite program (SDP) whose coefficients are recursively updated from online closed-loop measurements. Instead of repeatedly solving a full SDP as new data arrive, the policy is updated online through lightweight primal-dual iterations, each consisting of a linear equation solve and a projection onto the positive semidefinite cone. The framework applies to both direct and indirect data-driven formulations and covers a broad class of control objectives, including LQR, $H_\infty$ control, and safety-critical control. To characterize the coupling between online optimization and closed-loop data generation, we introduce two data-dependent quantities: the Sim-to-Real Gap, which measures the mismatch between noisy and noiseless data-induced SDPs, and the Difference-of-Signal, which measures the temporal variation of the SDP coefficients. Under persistency of excitation, suitable SDP regularity conditions, and sufficiently slow data variation, we establish a local linear tracking result up to residual terms governed by the latter two quantities. A global ergodic convergence bound is also derived for arbitrary initialization. Numerical examples on LQR, $H_\infty$ control, and safe exploration demonstrate that the proposed method can efficiently improve control performance from online data while accommodating SDP constraints beyond the well-explored LQR policy-gradient formulations.

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arXiv2025

Visibility Allocation Systems: How Algorithmic Design Shapes Online Visibility and Societal Outcomes

Throughout application domains, we now rely extensively on algorithmic systems to engage with ever-expanding datasets of information. Despite their benefits, these systems are often complex (comprising of many intricate tools, e.g., moderation, recommender systems, prediction models), of unknown structure (due to the lack of accompanying documentation), and having hard-to-predict yet potentially severe downstream consequences (due to the extensive use, systematic enactment of existing errors, and many comprising feedback loops). As such, understanding and evaluating these systems as a whole remains a challenge for both researchers and legislators. To aid ongoing efforts, we introduce a formal framework for such visibility allocation systems (VASs) which we define as (semi-)automated systems deciding which (processed) data to present a human user with. We review typical tools comprising VASs and define the associated computational problems they solve. By doing so, VASs can be decomposed into sub-processes and illustrated via data flow diagrams. Moreover, we survey metrics for evaluating VASs throughout the pipeline, thus aiding system diagnostics. Using forecasting-based recommendations in school choice as a case study, we demonstrate how our framework can support VAS evaluation. We also discuss how our framework can support ongoing AI-legislative efforts to locate obligations, quantify systemic risks, and enable adaptive compliance.

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arXiv2025

Optimal control of continuous-time symmetric systems with unknown dynamics and noisy measurements

An iterative learning algorithm is presented for continuous-time linear-quadratic optimal control problems where the system is externally symmetric with unknown dynamics. Both finite-horizon and infinite-horizon problems are considered. It is shown that the proposed algorithm is globally convergent to the optimal solution and has some advantages over adaptive dynamic programming, including being unbiased under noisy measurements and having a relatively low computational burden. Numerical experiments show the effectiveness of the results.

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arXiv2025

DeePC-Hunt: Data-enabled Predictive Control Hyperparameter Tuning via Differentiable Optimization

This paper introduces Data-enabled Predictive Control Hyperparameter Tuning via Differentiable Optimization (DeePC-Hunt), a backpropagation-based method for automatic hyperparameter tuning of the DeePC algorithm. The necessity for such a method arises from the importance of hyperparameter selection to achieve satisfactory closed-loop DeePC performance. The standard methods for hyperparameter selection are to either optimize the open-loop performance, or use manual guess-and-check. Optimizing the open-loop performance can result in unacceptable closed-loop behavior, while manual guess-and-check can pose safety challenges. DeePC-Hunt provides an alternative method for hyperparameter tuning which uses an approximate model of the system dynamics and backpropagation to directly optimize hyperparameters for the closed-loop DeePC performance. Numerical simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of DeePC in combination with DeePC-Hunt in a complex stabilization task for a nonlinear system and its superiority over model-based control strategies in terms of robustness to model misspecifications.

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arXiv2025

Distributed Time-Varying Gaussian Regression via Kalman Filtering

We consider the problem of learning time-varying functions in a distributed fashion, where agents collect local information to collaboratively achieve a shared estimate. This task is particularly relevant in control applications, whenever real-time and robust estimation of dynamic cost/reward functions in safety critical settings has to be performed. In this paper, we,adopt a finite-dimensional approximation of a Gaussian Process, corresponding to a Bayesian linear regression in an appropriate feature space, and propose a new algorithm, DistKP, to track the time-varying coefficients via a distributed Kalman filter. The proposed method works for arbitrary kernels and under weaker assumptions on the time-evolution of the function to learn compared to the literature. We validate our results using a simulation example in which a fleet of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) learns a dynamically changing wind field.

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arXiv2025

Fairness in Social Influence Maximization via Optimal Transport

We study fairness in social influence maximization, whereby one seeks to select seeds that spread a given information throughout a network, ensuring balanced outreach among different communities (e.g. demographic groups). In the literature, fairness is often quantified in terms of the expected outreach within individual communities. In this paper, we demonstrate that such fairness metrics can be misleading since they overlook the stochastic nature of information diffusion processes. When information diffusion occurs in a probabilistic manner, multiple outreach scenarios can occur. As such, outcomes such as ``In 50% of the cases, no one in group 1 gets the information, while everyone in group 2 does, and in the other 50%, it is the opposite'', which always results in largely unfair outcomes, are classified as fair by a variety of fairness metrics in the literature. We tackle this problem by designing a new fairness metric, mutual fairness, that captures variability in outreach through optimal transport theory. We propose a new seed-selection algorithm that optimizes both outreach and mutual fairness, and we show its efficacy on several real datasets. We find that our algorithm increases fairness with only a minor decrease (and at times, even an increase) in efficiency.

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arXiv2024

Physics-Informed Graph Neural Network for Dynamic Reconfiguration of Power Systems

To maintain a reliable grid we need fast decision-making algorithms for complex problems like Dynamic Reconfiguration (DyR). DyR optimizes distribution grid switch settings in real-time to minimize grid losses and dispatches resources to supply loads with available generation. DyR is a mixed-integer problem and can be computationally intractable to solve for large grids and at fast timescales. We propose GraPhyR, a Physics-Informed Graph Neural Network (GNNs) framework tailored for DyR. We incorporate essential operational and connectivity constraints directly within the GNN framework and train it end-to-end. Our results show that GraPhyR is able to learn to optimize the DyR task.

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arXiv2022

Time-domain Generalization of Kron Reduction

Kron reduction is a network-reduction method that eliminates nodes with zero current injections from electrical networks operating in sinusoidal steady state. In the time domain, the state-of-the-art application of Kron reduction has been in networks with transmission lines that have constant R/L ratios. This paper considers RL networks without such restriction and puts forth a provably exact time-domain generalization of Kron reduction. Exemplifying empirical tests on a wye-delta network are provided to validate the analytical results.

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arXiv2021

Optimal Placement of Virtual Inertia in Power Grids

A major transition in the operation of electric power grids is the replacement of synchronous machines by distributed generation connected via power electronic converters. The accompanying "loss of rotational inertia" and the fluctuations by renewable sources jeopardize the system stability, as testified by the ever-growing number of frequency incidents. As a remedy, numerous studies demonstrate how virtual inertia can be emulated through various devices, but few of them address the question of "where" to place this inertia. It is however strongly believed that the placement of virtual inertia hugely impacts system efficiency, as demonstrated by recent case studies. In this article, we carry out a comprehensive analysis in an attempt to address the optimal inertia placement problem. We consider a linear network-reduced power system model along with an H2 performance metric accounting for the network coherency. The optimal inertia placement problem turns out to be non-convex, yet we provide a set of closed-form global optimality results for particular problem instances as well as a computational approach resulting in locally optimal solutions. Further, we also consider the robust inertia allocation problem, wherein the optimization is carried out accounting for the worst-case disturbance location. We illustrate our results with a three-region power grid case study and compare our locally optimal solution with different placement heuristics in terms of different performance metrics.

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arXiv2020

Interplay Between Homophily-Based Appraisal Dynamics and Influence-Based Opinion Dynamics: Modeling and Analysis

In social systems, the evolution of interpersonal appraisals and individual opinions are not independent processes but intertwine with each other. Despite extensive studies on both opinion dynamics and appraisal dynamics separately, no previous work has ever combined these two processes together. In this paper, we propose a novel and intuitive model on the interplay between homophily-based appraisal dynamics and influence-based opinion dynamics. We assume that individuals' opinions are updated via the influence network constructed from their interpersonal appraisals, which are in turn updated based on the individual opinions via the homophily mechanism. By theoretical analysis, we characterize the set of equilibria and some transient behavior of our model. Moreover, we establish the equivalence among the convergence of the appraisal network to social balance, the modulus consensus of individual opinions, and the non-vanishing appraisals. Monte Carlo validations further show that the non-vanishing appraisals condition holds for generic initial conditions. Compared with previous works that explain the emergence of social balance via person-to-person homophily mechanism, our model provides an alternative explanation in terms of the person-to-entity homophily mechanism. In addition, our model also describes how individuals' opinions on multiple irrelevant issues become correlated and converge to modulus consensus over time-varying influence networks.

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arXiv2020

An Extended Kalman Filter for Data-enabled Predictive Control

The literature dealing with data-driven analysis and control problems has significantly grown in the recent years. Most of the recent literature deals with linear time-invariant systems in which the uncertainty (if any) is assumed to be deterministic and bounded; relatively little attention has been devoted to stochastic linear time-invariant systems. As a first step in this direction, we propose to equip the recently introduced Data-enabled Predictive Control algorithm with a data-based Extended Kalman Filter to make use of additional available input-output data for reducing the effect of noise, without increasing the computational load of the optimization procedure.

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arXiv2019

Data-Enabled Predictive Control for Grid-Connected Power Converters

We apply a novel data-enabled predictive control (DeePC) algorithm in grid-connected power converters to perform safe and optimal control. Rather than a model, the DeePC algorithm solely needs input/output data measured from the unknown system to predict future trajectories. We show that the DeePC can eliminate undesired oscillations in a grid-connected power converter and stabilize an unstable system. However, the DeePC algorithm may suffer from poor scalability when applied in high-order systems. To this end, we present a finite-horizon output-based model predictive control (MPC) for grid-connected power converters, which uses an N-step auto-regressive-moving-average (ARMA) model for system representation. The ARMA model is identified via an N-step prediction error method (PEM) in a recursive way. We investigate the connection between the DeePC and the concatenated PEM-MPC method, and then analytically and numerically compare their closed-loop performance. Moreover, the PEM-MPC is applied in a voltage source converter based HVDC station which is connected to a two-area power system so as to eliminate low-frequency oscillations. All of our results are illustrated with high-fidelity, nonlinear, and noisy simulations.

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arXiv2018

Input-Output Performance of Linear-Quadratic Saddle-Point Algorithms with Application to Distributed Resource Allocation Problems

Saddle-point or primal-dual methods have recently attracted renewed interest as a systematic technique to design distributed algorithms which solve convex optimization problems. When implemented online for streaming data or as dynamic feedback controllers, these algorithms become subject to disturbances and noise; convergence rates provide incomplete performance information, and quantifying input-output performance becomes more important. We analyze the input-output performance of the continuous-time saddle-point method applied to linearly constrained quadratic programs, providing explicit expressions for the saddle-point H2 norm under a relevant input-output configuration. We then proceed to derive analogous results for regularized and augmented versions of the saddle-point algorithm. We observe some rather peculiar effects -- a modest amount of regularization significantly improves the transient performance, while augmentation does not necessarily offer improvement. We then propose a distributed dual version of the algorithm which overcomes some of the performance limitations imposed by augmentation. Finally, we apply our results to a resource allocation problem to compare the input-output performance of various centralized and distributed saddle-point implementations and show that distributed algorithms may perform as well as their centralized counterparts.

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arXiv2018

Grid-forming Control for Power Converters based on Matching of Synchronous Machines

We consider the problem of grid-forming control of power converters in low-inertia power systems. Starting from an average-switch three-phase inverter model, we draw parallels to a synchronous machine (SM) model and propose a novel grid-forming converter control strategy which dwells upon the main characteristic of a SM: the presence of an internal rotating magnetic field. In particular, we augment the converter system with a virtual oscillator whose frequency is driven by the DC-side voltage measurement and which sets the converter pulse-width-modulation signal, thereby achieving exact matching between the converter in closed-loop and the SM dynamics. We then provide a sufficient condition assuring existence, uniqueness, and global asymptotic stability of equilibria in a coordinate frame attached to the virtual oscillator angle. By actuating the DC-side input of the converter we are able to enforce this sufficient condition. In the same setting, we highlight strict incremental passivity, droop, and power-sharing properties of the proposed framework, which are compatible with conventional requirements of power system operation. We subsequently adopt disturbance decoupling techniques to design additional control loops that regulate the DC-side voltage, as well as AC-side frequency and amplitude, while in the end validating them with numerical experiments.

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arXiv2017

A power consensus algorithm for DC microgrids

A novel power consensus algorithm for DC microgrids is proposed and analyzed. DC microgrids are networks composed of DC sources, loads, and interconnecting lines. They are represented by differential-algebraic equations connected over an undirected weighted graph that models the electrical circuit. A second graph represents the communication network over which the source nodes exchange information about the instantaneous powers, which is used to adjust the injected current accordingly. This give rise to a nonlinear consensus-like system of differential-algebraic equations that is analyzed via Lyapunov functions inspired by the physics of the system. We establish convergence to the set of equilibria consisting of weighted consensus power vectors as well as preservation of the weighted geometric mean of the source voltages. The results apply to networks with constant impedance, constant current and constant power loads.

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arXiv2016

Voltage Stabilization in Microgrids via Quadratic Droop Control

We consider the problem of voltage stability and reactive power balancing in islanded small-scale electrical networks outfitted with DC/AC inverters ("microgrids"). A droop-like voltage feedback controller is proposed which is quadratic in the local voltage magnitude, allowing for the application of circuit-theoretic analysis techniques to the closed-loop system. The operating points of the closed-loop microgrid are in exact correspondence with the solutions of a reduced power flow equation, and we provide explicit solutions and small-signal stability analyses under several static and dynamic load models. Controller optimality is characterized as follows: we show a one-to-one correspondence between the high-voltage equilibrium of the microgrid under quadratic droop control, and the solution of an optimization problem which minimizes a trade-off between reactive power dissipation and voltage deviations. Power sharing performance of the controller is characterized as a function of the controller gains, network topology, and parameters. Perhaps surprisingly, proportional sharing of the total load between inverters is achieved in the low-gain limit, independent of the circuit topology or reactances. All results hold for arbitrary grid topologies, with arbitrary numbers of inverters and loads. Numerical results confirm the robustness of the controller to unmodeled dynamics.

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arXiv2016

Uncovering Droop Control Laws Embedded Within the Nonlinear Dynamics of Van der Pol Oscillators

This paper examines the dynamics of power-electronic inverters in islanded microgrids that are controlled to emulate the dynamics of Van der Pol oscillators. The general strategy of controlling inverters to emulate the behavior of nonlinear oscillators presents a compelling time-domain alternative to ubiquitous droop control methods which presume the existence of a quasi-stationary sinusoidal steady state and operate on phasor quantities. We present two main results in this work. First, by leveraging the method of periodic averaging, we demonstrate that droop laws are intrinsically embedded within a slower time scale in the nonlinear dynamics of Van der Pol oscillators. Second, we establish the global convergence of amplitude and phase dynamics in a resistive network interconnecting inverters controlled as Van der Pol oscillators. Furthermore, under a set of non-restrictive decoupling approximations, we derive sufficient conditions for local exponential stability of desirable equilibria of the linearized amplitude and phase dynamics.

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