Thermodynamics Based Control of Network Systems

Abstract

The zeroth and first laws of thermodynamics define the concepts of thermal equilibrium and thermal energy. The second law of thermodynamics determines whether a particular transfer of thermal energy can occur. Collectively, these fundamental laws of nature imply that a closed collection of thermodynamic subsystems will tend to thermal equilibrium. This paper generalizes the concepts of energy, entropy, and temperature to undirected and directed networks of single integrators, and demonstrates how thermodynamic principles can be applied to the design of distributed consensus control algorithms for networked dynamical systems.