2,194 research outputs found
Value of Information in Feedback Control
In this article, we investigate the impact of information on networked
control systems, and illustrate how to quantify a fundamental property of
stochastic processes that can enrich our understanding about such systems. To
that end, we develop a theoretical framework for the joint design of an event
trigger and a controller in optimal event-triggered control. We cover two
distinct information patterns: perfect information and imperfect information.
In both cases, observations are available at the event trigger instantly, but
are transmitted to the controller sporadically with one-step delay. For each
information pattern, we characterize the optimal triggering policy and optimal
control policy such that the corresponding policy profile represents a Nash
equilibrium. Accordingly, we quantify the value of information
as the variation in the cost-to-go of the system given
an observation at time . Finally, we provide an algorithm for approximation
of the value of information, and synthesize a closed-form suboptimal triggering
policy with a performance guarantee that can readily be implemented
Markov Decision Processes with Applications in Wireless Sensor Networks: A Survey
Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) consist of autonomous and resource-limited
devices. The devices cooperate to monitor one or more physical phenomena within
an area of interest. WSNs operate as stochastic systems because of randomness
in the monitored environments. For long service time and low maintenance cost,
WSNs require adaptive and robust methods to address data exchange, topology
formulation, resource and power optimization, sensing coverage and object
detection, and security challenges. In these problems, sensor nodes are to make
optimized decisions from a set of accessible strategies to achieve design
goals. This survey reviews numerous applications of the Markov decision process
(MDP) framework, a powerful decision-making tool to develop adaptive algorithms
and protocols for WSNs. Furthermore, various solution methods are discussed and
compared to serve as a guide for using MDPs in WSNs
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