Comparative Study Between Centralized and Decentralized LQR Controls of a Building–Elevator System

When both a building and its equipment have a vibration controller, the controller of the equipment should consider the behaviour of the building and vice versa. First, we classified control schemes according to the amount of state variables communicated between the controllers and the type of control objectives. Then, a high-rise building with an elevator system is analysed under seismic excitation to compare the performance of the classified control schemes that use a linear quadratic regulator. It is observed that the story drift and the response of the elevator rope are best reduced when all the state variables are communicated, but they can be sufficiently reduced even if not all the state variables are communicated.