Problem partitioning method and system

A computer system for problem solving wherein the improvement is a problem partitioner, comprising:

• an application controller for providing a definition of a system to be controlled to a solver distribution module, said system to be controlled having a plurality of actuators;
• a decomposition module within said solver distribution module for decomposing said system into a plurality of hierarchical control structure instances;
• an evaluation module for evaluating the performance of each of said hierarchical control structure instances;
• and
• a control allocation module for grouping the actuators into modules for hierarchical allocation.

A computer program product comprising:

• a computer usable medium having computer readable program code means embedded in said medium for causing the partitioning of a problem to be solved by a computer, the computer readable code comprising:
• computer readable program code means for causing said computer to decompose the control elements of a system to be controlled into a plurality of hierarchical control structure instances;
• computer readable program code means for causing said computer to evaluate the performance of each of said hierarchical control structure instances;
• and
• computer readable program code means for selecting an optimal hierarchical control structure instance.

A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for solving a problem by partitioning the control elements of a system to be controlled, said method steps comprising:

• receiving problem definitions;
• receiving a structure evaluation function;
• and
• defining an instantiation for a hierarchical control structure comprising the steps of:
• decomposing said system into a plurality of hierarchical control structure instances, wherein each of said hierarchical control structure instances includes a plurality of control levels, wherein each of said control levels includes at least one control node;
• evaluating the performance of each of said hierarchical control structure instances with said structure evaluation function;
• and
• selecting an optimal hierarchical control structure instance.