Latent feedback control of distributed systems in multiple scenarios through deep learning-based reduced order models

Continuous monitoring and real-time control of high-dimensional distributed systems are often crucial in applications to ensure a desired physical behavior, without degrading stability and system performances. Traditional feedback control design that relies on full-order models, such as high-dimensional state-space representations or partial differential equations, fails to meet these requirements due to the delay in the control computation, which requires multiple expensive simulations of the physical system. The computational bottleneck is even more severe when considering parametrized systems, as new strategies have to be determined for every new scenario. To address these challenges, we propose a real-time closed-loop control strategy enhanced by nonlinear non-intrusive Deep Learning-based Reduced Order Models (DL-ROMs). Specifically, in the offline phase, (i) full-order state-control pairs are generated for different scenarios through the adjoint method, (ii) the essential features relevant for control design are extracted from the snapshots through a combination of Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) and deep autoencoders, and (iii) the low-dimensional policy bridging latent control and state spaces is approximated with a feedforward neural network. After data generation and neural networks training, the optimal control actions are retrieved in real-time for any observed state and scenario. In addition, the dynamics may be approximated through a cheap surrogate model in order to close the loop at the latent level, thus continuously controlling the system in real-time even when full-order state measurements are missing. The effectiveness of the proposed method, in terms of computational speed, accuracy, and robustness against noisy data, is finally assessed on two different high-dimensional optimal transport problems, one of which also involving an underlying fluid flow.