Sluttlevering

Sluttlevering is a concept in systems design describing a strategy for distributing control influence among components of a complex system to maintain performance under changing conditions. It involves a gradual shift of authority from one subsystem to another across a spectrum of intermediate states, rather than abrupt switches.

Mechanism: The approach defines a set of weighting factors that govern how much each subsystem contributes to the overall control signal. These weights are updated continuously in response to real-time data such as state measurements, disturbances, or predicted trajectories. The result is a smooth, progressive reallocation of control responsibility that can adapt to gradual and sudden perturbations.

Applications: In robotics, sluttlevering can help a manipulator maintain precision when payload distribution changes by slowly transferring control from a high-precision but limited bandwidth module to a more robust dynamic module as needed. In power systems, it can assist in balancing load by gently shifting regulation duties between fast-responding governors and slower economic controls. In communications networks, congestion management can use sluttlevering to reweight routing and congestion signals over time.

Advantages and limitations: The technique can improve stability and resilience under variability, but it requires careful tuning to avoid lag, oscillations, or loss of observability. It may increase computational load and complicate verification and safety certification.

Related topics include adaptive control, decentralized control, and fault-tolerant control.