Data Transmission Over Networks for Estimation and Control

We consider the problem of controlling a linear time invariant process when the controller is located at a location remote from where the sensor measurements are being generated. The communication from the sensor to the controller is supported by a communication network with arbitrary topology composed of analog erasure channels. Using a separation principle, we prove that the optimal linear-quadratic-Gaussian (LQG) controller consists of an LQ optimal regulator along with an estimator that estimates the state of the process across the communication network. We then determine the optimal information processing strategy that should be followed by each node in the network so that the estimator is able to compute the best possible estimate in the minimum mean squared error sense. The algorithm is optimal for any packet-dropping process and at every time step, even though it is recursive and hence requires a constant amount of memory, processing and transmission at every node in the network per time step. For the case when the packet drop processes are memoryless and independent across links, we analyze the stability properties and the performance of the closed loop system. The algorithm is an attempt to escape the viewpoint of treating a network of communication links as a single end-to-end link with the probability of successful transmission determined by some measure of the reliability of the network

Design of State-based Schedulers for a Network of Control Loops

For a closed-loop system, which has a contention-based multiple access network on its sensor link, the Medium Access Controller (MAC) may discard some packets when the traffic on the link is high. We use a local state-based scheduler to select a few critical data packets to send to the MAC. In this paper, we analyze the impact of such a scheduler on the closed-loop system in the presence of traffic, and show that there is a dual effect with state-based scheduling. In general, this makes the optimal scheduler and controller hard to find. However, by removing past controls from the scheduling criterion, we find that certainty equivalence holds. This condition is related to the classical result of Bar-Shalom and Tse, and it leads to the design of a scheduler with a certainty equivalent controller. This design, however, does not result in an equivalent system to the original problem, in the sense of Witsenhausen. Computing the estimate is difficult, but can be simplified by introducing a symmetry constraint on the scheduler. Based on these findings, we propose a dual predictor architecture for the closed-loop system, which ensures separation between scheduler, observer and controller. We present an example of this architecture, which illustrates a network-aware event-triggering mechanism.Comment: 17 pages, technical repor

Wireless industrial monitoring and control networks: the journey so far and the road ahead

While traditional wired communication technologies have played a crucial role in industrial monitoring and control networks over the past few decades, they are increasingly proving to be inadequate to meet the highly dynamic and stringent demands of today’s industrial applications, primarily due to the very rigid nature of wired infrastructures. Wireless technology, however, through its increased pervasiveness, has the potential to revolutionize the industry, not only by mitigating the problems faced by wired solutions, but also by introducing a completely new class of applications. While present day wireless technologies made some preliminary inroads in the monitoring domain, they still have severe limitations especially when real-time, reliable distributed control operations are concerned. This article provides the reader with an overview of existing wireless technologies commonly used in the monitoring and control industry. It highlights the pros and cons of each technology and assesses the degree to which each technology is able to meet the stringent demands of industrial monitoring and control networks. Additionally, it summarizes mechanisms proposed by academia, especially serving critical applications by addressing the real-time and reliability requirements of industrial process automation. The article also describes certain key research problems from the physical layer communication for sensor networks and the wireless networking perspective that have yet to be addressed to allow the successful use of wireless technologies in industrial monitoring and control networks

Compensation of distributed delays in integrated communication and control systems

The concept, analysis, implementation, and verification of a method for compensating delays that are distributed between the sensors, controller, and actuators within a control loop are discussed. With the objective of mitigating the detrimental effects of these network induced delays, a predictor-controller algorithm was formulated and analyzed. Robustness of the delay compensation algorithm was investigated relative to parametric uncertainties in plant modeling. The delay compensator was experimentally verified on an IEEE 802.4 network testbed for velocity control of a DC servomotor

Optimal LQG Control Across a Packet-Dropping Link

We examine optimal Linear Quadratic Gaussian control for a system in which communication between the sensor (output of the plant) and the controller occurs across a packet-dropping link. We extend the familiar LQG separation principle to this problem that allows us to solve this problem using a standard LQR state-feedback design, along with an optimal algorithm for propagating and using the information across the unreliable link. We present one such optimal algorithm, which consists of a Kalman Filter at the sensor side of the link, and a switched linear filter at the controller side. Our design does not assume any statistical model of the packet drop events, and is thus optimal for an arbitrary packet drop pattern. Further, the solution is appealing from a practical point of view because it can be implemented as a small modification of an existing LQG control design

Separation of Circulating Tokens

Self-stabilizing distributed control is often modeled by token abstractions. A system with a single token may implement mutual exclusion; a system with multiple tokens may ensure that immediate neighbors do not simultaneously enjoy a privilege. For a cyber-physical system, tokens may represent physical objects whose movement is controlled. The problem studied in this paper is to ensure that a synchronous system with m circulating tokens has at least d distance between tokens. This problem is first considered in a ring where d is given whilst m and the ring size n are unknown. The protocol solving this problem can be uniform, with all processes running the same program, or it can be non-uniform, with some processes acting only as token relays. The protocol for this first problem is simple, and can be expressed with Petri net formalism. A second problem is to maximize d when m is given, and n is unknown. For the second problem, the paper presents a non-uniform protocol with a single corrective process.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figures, epsf and pstricks in LaTe

A virtual actuator approach for the secure control of networked LPV systems under pulse-width modulated DoS attacks

In this paper, we formulate and analyze the problem of secure control in the context of networked linear parameter varying (LPV) systems. We consider an energy-constrained, pulse-width modulated (PWM) jammer, which corrupts the control communication channel by performing a denial-of-service (DoS) attack. In particular, the malicious attacker is able to erase the data sent to one or more actuators. In order to achieve secure control, we propose a virtual actuator technique under the assumption that the behavior of the attacker has been identified. The main advantage brought by this technique is that the existing components in the control system can be maintained without need of retuning them, since the virtual actuator will perform a reconfiguration of the plant, hiding the attack from the controller point of view. Using Lyapunov-based results that take into account the possible behavior of the attacker, design conditions for calculating the virtual actuators gains are obtained. A numerical example is used to illustrate the proposed secure control strategy.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Design criteria for flight evaluation. Monograph 4 - Control system evaluation

Methods and analyses for flight evaluation of control systems for multistage launch vehicle