An analysis of the destabilizing effect of daisy chained rate-limited actuators

The response of a rate-limited actuator will lag behind a rapidly changing command, This lag may destabilize the closed-loop system, When multiple actuators are arranged in a daisy chain this effect can be significantly worse, The cost of daisy chaining, in terms of lost stability margin, is estimated analytically and numerically, A comparison of a simple daisy chain with a simple ''cooperative'' control selector shows that the daisy chain may cause as much as 30 degrees of additional phase lag.