A Modified Direct Allocation Algorithm with Application to Redundant Actuators

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Control allocation considers the problem of controlling instruction distribution for control systems with multiple and redundant actuators. This paper focuses on the direct allocation method, making the time requirement of the algorithm analogous compared with modified pseudoinverse redistribution methods, linear programming methods solved by simplex method, and sub-gradient optimization method. To reduce off-line computations of constructing the attainable moment set of actuators, a new approach based on the null space of the control effectiveness matrix is proposed, which is superior when the number of actuators is less than 10 compared with traditional method. To decrease on-line computations, an improvement method of searching the facet that is aligned with the desired moment is presented, shortening the search time by checking only the facets that lie around the desired moment. To find such facets, the vertices of the attainable moment set are normalized and saved during off-line computations. Simulation results show that at least 32.22% of off-line computation time would be saved using null space-based construction when the number of actuators is less than 10. In on-line computations, the modified method performs superiorly compared with the three aforementioned methods. Furthermore, it may solve the problem of control allocation efficiently when a remarkable large number of redundant actuators are configured.