Designing Market-Based Control with a Genetic Algorithm

Semi-active devices are low-cost as well as small and by changing the properties of low-power intensive structures, the aims of control are accomplished. On the other hand, the limited control force which can be applied to the structure for each damper causes more dampers to be used in the structures compared to the larger and stronger control devices which are more costly. These dampers coupled with sensors and the structure themselves make a complex dynamic system which is best controlled by a decentralized method such as Market-Based Control (MBC). In MBC, the actuators and the supply energy are modeled as buyer and seller respectively in the market place. To define the demand function of the buyer and the supply function of the seller some weighting constants have to be chosen. The performance of the MBC correlates with prudent selection of the weighting constants. In this study, the novel method for designing MBC by using Genetic Algorithm (GA) is presented. The MBC approach is applied to three linear structures having five, ten and twenty floors and the resulting solutions show the merits of the new methods for tuning MBC as opposed to the solutions using a centralized linear quadratic regulator (LQR).