A Novel Method of Solving Linear Programs with an Analog Circuit

We present the design of an analog circuit which solves linear programming (LP) problems. In particular, the steady-state circuit voltages are the components of the LP optimal solution. The paper shows how to construct the circuit and provides a proof of equivalence between the circuit and the LP problem. The proposed method is used to implement a LP-based Model Predictive Controller by using an analog circuit. Simulative and experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.