Networked Control Systems

This book nds its origin in the WIDE PhD School on Networked Control Systems, which we organized in July 2009 in Siena, Italy. Having gathered experts on all the aspects of networked control systems, it was a small step to go from the summer school to the book, certainly given the enthusiasm of the lecturers at the school. We felt that a book collecting overviewson the important developmentsand open pr- lems in the eld of networked control systems could stimulate and support future research in this appealing area. Given the tremendouscurrentinterests in distributed control exploiting wired and wireless communication networks, the time seemed to be right for the book that lies now in front of you. The goal of the book is to set out the core techniques and tools that are ava- able for the modeling, analysis and design of networked control systems. Roughly speaking, the book consists of three parts. The rst part presents architectures for distributed control systems and models of wired and wireless communication n- works. In particular, in the rst chapter important technological and architectural aspects on distributed control systems are discussed. The second chapter provides insight in the behavior of communication channels in terms of delays, packet loss and information constraints leading to suitable modeling paradigms for commu- cation networks.

Networked Control Systems: Cloud Control and Secure Control explores new technological developments in networked control systems (NCS), including new techniques, such as event-triggered, secure and cloud control. It provides the fundamentals and underlying issues of networked control systems under normal operating environments and under cyberphysical attack. The book includes a critical examination of the principles of cloud computing, cloud control systems design, the available techniques of secure control design to NCS’s under cyberphysical attack, along with strategies for resilient and secure control of cyberphysical systems. Smart grid infrastructures are also discussed, providing diagnosis methods to analyze and counteract impacts. Finally, a series of practical case studies are provided to cover a range of NCS’s. This book is an essential resource for professionals and graduate students working in the fields of networked control systems, signal processing and distributed estimation. Provides coverage of cloud-based approaches to control systems and secure control methodologies to protect cyberphysical systems against various types of malicious attacks Provides an overview of control research literature and explores future developments and solutions Includes case studies that offer solutions for issues with modeling, quantization, packet dropout, time delay and communication constraints

This book presents Networked Control System (NCS) as a particular kind of a real-time distributed system (RTDS), composed of a set of nodes, interconnected by a network, and able to develop a complete control process. It describes important parts of the control process such as sensor and actuator activities, which rely on a real-time operating system, and a real-time communication network. As the use of common bus network architecture introduces different forms of uncertainties between sensors, actuators, and controllers, several approaches such as reconfigurable systems have been developed to tackle this problem. Moreover, modeling NCS is a challenging procedure, since there are several non-linear situations, like local saturations, uncertain time delays, dead-zones, or local situations, it is necessary to deal with. The book describes a novel strategy for modelling and control based on a fuzzy control approach and codesign strategies.

Networked control systems (NCS) confer advantages of cost reduction, system diagnosis and flexibility, minimizing wiring and simplifying the addition and replacement of individual elements; efficient data sharing makes taking globally intelligent control decisions easier with NCS. The applications of NCS range from the large scale of factory automation and plant monitoring to the smaller networks of computers in modern cars, places and autonomous robots. Networked Control Systems presents recent results in stability and robustness analysis and new developments related to networked fuzzy and optimal control. Many chapters contain case-studies, experimental, simulation or other application-related work showing how the theories put forward can be implemented. The state-of-the art research reported in this volume by an international team of contributors makes it an essential reference for researchers and postgraduate students in control, electrical, computer and mechanical engineering and computer science.

Networked Control Systems (NCSs) are spatially distributed systems for which the communication between sensors, actuators and controllers is realized by a shared (wired or wireless) communication network. NCSs offer several advantages, such as reduced installation and maintenance costs, as well as greater flexibility, over conventional control systems in which parts of control loops exchange information via dedicated point-to-point connections. The principal goal of this book is to present a coherent and versatile framework applicable to various settings investigated by the authors over the last several years. This framework is applicable to nonlinear time-varying dynamic plants and controllers with delayed dynamics; a large class of static, dynamic, probabilistic and priority-oriented scheduling protocols; delayed, noisy, lossy and intermittent information exchange; decentralized control problems of heterogeneous agents with time-varying directed (not necessarily balanced) communication topologies; state- and output-feedback; off-line and on-line intermittent feedback; optimal intermittent feedback through Approximate Dynamic Programming (ADP) and Reinforcement Learning (RL); and control systems with exogenous disturbances and modeling uncertainties.

Optimal and Robust Scheduling for Networked Control Systems tackles the problem of integrating system components—controllers, sensors, and actuators—in a networked control system. It is common practice in industry to solve such problems heuristically, because the few theoretical results available are not comprehensive and cannot be readily applied by practitioners. This book offers a solution to the deterministic scheduling problem that is based on rigorous control theoretical tools but also addresses practical implementation issues. Helping to bridge the gap between control theory and computer science, it suggests that the consideration of communication constraints at the design stage will significantly improve the performance of the control system. Technical Results, Design Techniques, and Practical Applications The book brings together well-known measures for robust performance as well as fast stochastic algorithms to assist designers in selecting the best network configuration and guaranteeing the speed of offline optimization. The authors propose a unifying framework for modelling NCSs with time-triggered communication and present technical results. They also introduce design techniques, including for the codesign of a controller and communication sequence and for the robust design of a communication sequence for a given controller. Case studies explore the use of the FlexRay TDMA and time-triggered control area network (CAN) protocols in an automotive control system. Practical Solutions to Your Time-Triggered Communication Problems This unique book develops ready-to-use engineering tools for large-scale control system integration with a focus on robustness and performance. It emphasizes techniques that are directly applicable to time-triggered communication problems in the automotive industry and in avionics, robotics, and automated manufacturing.

This book provides a comprehensive treatment of the optimal control design and analysis of both linear and nonlinear networked systems without needing the system dynamics and network imperfections. Both state and event trigger design are also introduced in order to minimize congestion and improve network performance. In addition, the book includes many practical systems in the examples and workout problems presented in each chapter.

The vast majority of control systems built today are embedded; that is, they rely on built-in, special-purpose digital computers to close their feedback loops. Embedded systems are common in aircraft, factories, chemical processing plants, and even in cars–a single high-end automobile may contain over eighty different computers. The design of embedded controllers and of the intricate, automated communication networks that support them raises many new questions—practical, as well as theoretical—about network protocols, compatibility of operating systems, and ways to maximize the effectiveness of the embedded hardware. This handbook, the first of its kind, provides engineers, computer scientists, mathematicians, and students a broad, comprehensive source of information and technology to address many questions and aspects of embedded and networked control. Separated into six main sections—Fundamentals, Hardware, Software, Theory, Networking, and Applications—this work unifies into a single reference many scattered articles, websites, and specification sheets. Also included are case studies, experiments, and examples that give a multifaceted view of the subject, encompassing computation and communication considerations.