Envelope Control is a control architecture in which the
operational envelope of a controlled system is treated as a
first-class control state.
An operational envelope defines the region in which a system can operate
safely, predictably, and sustainably, given:
🚨 Exceeding the envelope is not treated as a disturbance,
but as a state transition that changes what actions are permitted.
Conventional control architectures often implicitly assume that:
In real systems, these assumptions are the first to break.
| Priority | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 🛡 Survivability | Staying alive beats tracking performance |
| 📦 Bounded behavior | Respect limits over chasing optimality |
| 🔄 Controlled degradation | Restrict modes instead of aggressive adaptation |
Performance objectives are always subordinate to envelope constraints.
Envelope violations trigger mode or state transitions,
not continuous gain tuning or hidden compensation.
Reconfiguration or adaptation is allowed only if explicitly permitted
by the current envelope state.
The architecture must be able to say:
“This action is unsafe and will not be executed.”
Silence or saturation is not acceptable behavior.
Envelope Control does not aim to:
Classical control laws remain valid —
Envelope Control governs when they are allowed to act.
Envelope Control is not:
It is an architectural control discipline focused on
explicitly managing operational limits as system states.
💡 Envelope Control answers a different question than optimization:
“What must the system refuse to do in order to survive?”