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Covid-19 and flattening the curve: a feedback control perspective

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journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 23:03 authored by Francesco Di Lauro, Istvan Kiss, Daniela Rus, Cosimo Della Santina
Many of the policies that were put into place during the Covid-19 pandemic had a common goal: to flatten the curve of the number of infected people so that its peak remains under a critical threshold. This letter considers the challenge of engineering a strategy that enforces such a goal using control theory. We introduce a simple formulation of the optimal flattening problem, and provide a closed form solution. This is augmented through nonlinear closed loop tracking of the nominal solution, with the aim of ensuring close-to-optimal performance under uncertain conditions. A key contribution of this letter is to provide validation of the method with extensive and realistic simulations in a Covid-19 scenario, with particular focus on the case of Codogno - a small city in Northern Italy that has been among the most harshly hit by the pandemic.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

IEEE Control Systems Letters

ISSN

2475-1456

Publisher

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

Issue

4

Volume

5

Page range

1435-1440

Department affiliated with

  • Mathematics Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2021-02-15

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2021-06-25

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2021-06-25

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