A Robust Optimization Approach to Network Control Using Local Information Exchange

Designing policies for a network of agents is typically done by formulating an optimization problem where each agent has access to state measurements of all the other agents in the network. Such policy designs with centralized information exchange result in optimization problems that are typically hard to solve, require establishing substantial communication links, and do not promote privacy since all information is shared among the agents. Designing policies based on arbitrary communication structures can lead to nonconvex optimization problems that are typically NP-hard. In this work, we propose an optimization framework for decentralized policy designs. In contrast to the centralized information exchange, our approach requires only local communication exchange among the neighboring agents matching the physical coupling of the network. Thus, each agent only requires information from its direct neighbors, minimizing the need for excessive communication and promoting privacy amongst the agents. Using robust optimization techniques, we formulate a convex optimization problem with a loosely coupled structure that can be solved efficiently. We numerically demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed approach in energy management and supply chain applications. We show that the proposed approach leads to solutions that closely approximate those obtained by the centralized formulation only at a fraction of the computational effort.

Funding: This research was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation [Grant 51NF40_180545 under the National Centres of Competence in Research (NCCR) Automation and Grant P2ELP2_195149, Early Postdoc Mobility Fellowship].

Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/opre.2020.0217.