Embedded Control System Design

Control system design is a challenging task for practicing engineers. It requires knowledge of different engineering fields, a good understanding of technical specifications and good communication skills. The current book introduces the reader into practical control system design, bridging the gap between theory and practice. The control design techniques presented in the book are all model based., considering the needs and possibilities of practicing engineers. Classical control design techniques are reviewed and methods are presented how to verify the robustness of the design. It is how the designed control algorithm can be implemented in real-time and tested, fulfilling different safety requirements. Good design practices and the systematic software development process are emphasized in the book according to the generic standard IEC61508. The book is mainly addressed to practicing control and embedded software engineers - working in research and development – as well as graduate students who are faced with the challenge to design control systems and implement them in real-time.

A set of original results in the ?eld of high-level design of logical control devices and systems is presented in this book. These concern different aspects of such important and long-term design problems, including the following, which seem to be the main ones. First, the behavior of a device under design must be described properly, and some adequate formal language should be chosen for that. Second, effective algorithmsshouldbeusedforcheckingtheprepareddescriptionforcorrectness, foritssyntacticandsemanticveri?cationattheinitialbehaviorlevel.Third,the problem of logic circuit implementation must be solved using some concrete technological base; ef?cient methods of logic synthesis, test, and veri?cation should be developed for that. Fourth, the task of the communication between the control device and controlled objects (and maybe between different control devices)waitsforitssolution.Alltheseproblemsarehardenoughandcannotbe successfully solved without ef?cient methods and algorithms oriented toward computer implementation. Some of these are described in this book. The languages used for behavior description have been descended usually from two well-known abstract models which became classic: Petri nets and ?nite state machines (FSMs). Anyhow, more detailed versions are developed and described in the book, which enable to give more complete information concerningspeci?cqualitiesoftheregardedsystems.Forexample,themodelof parallelautomatonispresented,whichunliketheconventional?niteautomaton can be placed simultaneously into several places, calledpartial. As a base for circuit implementation of control algorithms, FPGA is accepted in majority of cases.

The aim of this book is to present the theoretical and practical aspects of embedded robust control design and implementation with the aid of MATLAB(R) and SIMULINK(R). It covers methods suitable for practical implementations, combining knowledge from control system design and computer engineering to describe the entire design cycle.

This fascinating new work comes complete with more than 100 illustrations and a detailed practical prototype. It explores the domains encountered when designing a distributed embedded computer control system as an integrated whole. Basic issues about real-time systems and their properties, especially safety, are examined first. Then, system and hardware architectures are dealt with, along with programming issues, embodying desired properties, basic language subsets, object orientation and language support for hardware and software specifications.

Many embedded engineers and programmers who need to implement basic process or motion control as part of a product design do not have formal training or experience in control system theory. Although some projects require advanced and very sophisticated control systems expertise, the majority of embedded control problems can be solved without resorting to heavy math and complicated control theory. However, existing texts on the subject are highly mathematical and theoretical and do not offer practical examples for embedded designers. This book is different;it presents mathematical background with sufficient rigor for an engineering text, but it concentrates on providing practical application examples that can be used to design working systems, without needing to fully understand the math and high-level theory operating behind the scenes. The author, an engineer with many years of experience in the application of control system theory to embedded designs, offers a concise presentation of the basics of control theory as it pertains to an embedded environment. Practical, down-to-earth guide teaches engineers to apply practical control theorems without needing to employ rigorous math Covers the latest concepts in control systems with embedded digital controllers

This book serves as a practical guide for practicing engineers who need to design embedded systems for high-speed data acquisition and control systems. A minimum amount of theory is presented, along with a review of analog and digital electronics, followed by detailed explanations of essential topics in hardware design and software development. The discussion of hardware focuses on microcontroller design (ARM microcontrollers and FPGAs), techniques of embedded design, high speed data acquisition (DAQ) and control systems. Coverage of software development includes main programming techniques, culminating in the study of real-time operating systems. All concepts are introduced in a manner to be highly-accessible to practicing engineers and lead to the practical implementation of an embedded board that can be used in various industrial fields as a control system and high speed data acquisition system.

Fast and Effective Embedded Systems Design is a fast-moving introduction to embedded system design, applying the innovative ARM mbed and its web-based development environment. Each chapter introduces a major topic in embedded systems, and proceeds as a series of practical experiments, adopting a "learning through doing" strategy. Minimal background knowledge is needed. C/C++ programming is applied, with a step-by-step approach which allows the novice to get coding quickly. Once the basics are covered, the book progresses to some "hot" embedded issues - intelligent instrumentation, networked systems, closed loop control, and digital signal processing. Written by two experts in the field, this book reflects on the experimental results, develops and matches theory to practice, evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of the technology or technique introduced, and considers applications and the wider context. Numerous exercises and end of chapter questions are included. A hands-on introduction to the field of embedded systems, with a focus on fast prototyping Key embedded system concepts covered through simple and effective experimentation Amazing breadth of coverage, from simple digital i/o, to advanced networking and control Applies the most accessible tools available in the embedded world Supported by mbed and book web sites, containing FAQs and all code examples Deep insights into ARM technology, and aspects of microcontroller architecture Instructor support available, including power point slides, and solutions to questions and exercises

Today, many embedded or cyber-physical systems, e.g., in the automotive domain, comprise several control applications, sharing the same platform. It is well known that such resource sharing leads to complex temporal behaviors that degrades the quality of control, and more importantly, may even jeopardize stability in the worst case, if not properly taken into account. In this thesis, we consider embedded control or cyber-physical systems, where several control applications share the same processing unit. The focus is on the control-scheduling co-design problem, where the controller and scheduling parameters are jointly optimized. The fundamental difference between control applications and traditional embedded applications motivates the need for novel methodologies for the design and optimization of embedded control systems. This thesis is one more step towards correct design and optimization of embedded control systems. Offline and online methodologies for embedded control systems are covered in this thesis. The importance of considering both the expected control performance and stability is discussed and a control-scheduling co-design methodology is proposed to optimize control performance while guaranteeing stability. Orthogonal to this, bandwidth-efficient stabilizing control servers are proposed, which support compositionality, isolation, and resource-efficiency in design and co-design. Finally, we extend the scope of the proposed approach to non-periodic control schemes and address the challenges in sharing the platform with self-triggered controllers. In addition to offline methodologies, a novel online scheduling policy to stabilize control applications is proposed.