Teamwork without talking: distributed system estimates maintain approximately centralized control of smart urban drainage systems during communications outages

Real-time control of urban drainage systems (UDS) can reduce flood risk while enhancing water quality. However, internet-connected valves and weirs may become a liability during communications outages. Given that severe storms often cause both flooding and communications failures, it is critical tha...

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Main Authors: Travis Adrian Dantzer, Branko Kerkez
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025-01-01
Series:Water Research X
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S258991472400077X
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author Travis Adrian Dantzer
Branko Kerkez
author_facet Travis Adrian Dantzer
Branko Kerkez
author_sort Travis Adrian Dantzer
collection DOAJ
description Real-time control of urban drainage systems (UDS) can reduce flood risk while enhancing water quality. However, internet-connected valves and weirs may become a liability during communications outages. Given that severe storms often cause both flooding and communications failures, it is critical that smart systems cope well with communications outages during these events. We propose a method to maintain approximately centralized predictive control of a UDS under intermittent communication by hosting approximations of the total system’s dynamics and states on each networked microcontroller. This allows individual microcontrollers to act from an imperfect understanding of the total system, even when they have not communicated with the central server for several days. We show robustness to communications outages; maintaining centralized control in this case study when reporting only once every 7 days on average. We also examine the role of relative position within the network in determining the accuracy of each microcontroller’s estimates of depths in the other storage basins. This investigation supports the idea that agents within a distributed control problem can make model-based inferences of total system conditions using their local measurements.
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spelling doaj-art-c0724050c7b3400a94b9bd0713e873a92025-08-20T02:47:36ZengElsevierWater Research X2589-91472025-01-012610028710.1016/j.wroa.2024.100287Teamwork without talking: distributed system estimates maintain approximately centralized control of smart urban drainage systems during communications outagesTravis Adrian Dantzer0Branko Kerkez1Corresponding author.; University of Michigan Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2350 Hayward St, Ann Arbor, 48104, Michigan, USAUniversity of Michigan Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2350 Hayward St, Ann Arbor, 48104, Michigan, USAReal-time control of urban drainage systems (UDS) can reduce flood risk while enhancing water quality. However, internet-connected valves and weirs may become a liability during communications outages. Given that severe storms often cause both flooding and communications failures, it is critical that smart systems cope well with communications outages during these events. We propose a method to maintain approximately centralized predictive control of a UDS under intermittent communication by hosting approximations of the total system’s dynamics and states on each networked microcontroller. This allows individual microcontrollers to act from an imperfect understanding of the total system, even when they have not communicated with the central server for several days. We show robustness to communications outages; maintaining centralized control in this case study when reporting only once every 7 days on average. We also examine the role of relative position within the network in determining the accuracy of each microcontroller’s estimates of depths in the other storage basins. This investigation supports the idea that agents within a distributed control problem can make model-based inferences of total system conditions using their local measurements.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S258991472400077XModel-based predictive controlInternet of thingsRobust controlDisaster resilienceSmart urban drainage systems
spellingShingle Travis Adrian Dantzer
Branko Kerkez
Teamwork without talking: distributed system estimates maintain approximately centralized control of smart urban drainage systems during communications outages
Water Research X
Model-based predictive control
Internet of things
Robust control
Disaster resilience
Smart urban drainage systems
title Teamwork without talking: distributed system estimates maintain approximately centralized control of smart urban drainage systems during communications outages
title_full Teamwork without talking: distributed system estimates maintain approximately centralized control of smart urban drainage systems during communications outages
title_fullStr Teamwork without talking: distributed system estimates maintain approximately centralized control of smart urban drainage systems during communications outages
title_full_unstemmed Teamwork without talking: distributed system estimates maintain approximately centralized control of smart urban drainage systems during communications outages
title_short Teamwork without talking: distributed system estimates maintain approximately centralized control of smart urban drainage systems during communications outages
title_sort teamwork without talking distributed system estimates maintain approximately centralized control of smart urban drainage systems during communications outages
topic Model-based predictive control
Internet of things
Robust control
Disaster resilience
Smart urban drainage systems
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S258991472400077X
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AT brankokerkez teamworkwithouttalkingdistributedsystemestimatesmaintainapproximatelycentralizedcontrolofsmarturbandrainagesystemsduringcommunicationsoutages