Improving Component-Swapping Modularity Using Bidirectional Communication in Networked Control Systems

Design, Analysis and Real-time Implementation of Networked Predictive Control Systems

Connecting a complex control system with various sensors, actuators, and controllers as a networked control system by a shared data network can effectively reduce complicated wiring connections. This system is also easy to install and maintain. The trend is to use networked control systems for time-sensitive applications, such as remote DC motor actuation control. The performance of a networked control system can be improved if the network can guarantee quality-of-service (QoS). Due to time-varying network traffic demands and disturbances, QoS requirements provided by a network may change. In this case, a network has to reallocate its resources and may not be able to provide QoS requirements to a networked control application as needed. Therefore, the application may have to gracefully degrade its performance and perform the task as best as possible with the provided network QoS. This paper proposes a novel approach for networked DC motor control systems using controller gain adaptation to compensate for the changes in QoS requirements. Numerical and experimental simulations, and prototyping, are presented to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed adaptation scheme to handle network QoS variation in a control loop. The effective results show the promising future of the use of gain adaptation in networked control applications.

The performance of a networked control system (NCS) is affected directly and indirectly by time delays generated in network communication. This paper addresses these time delays, their effects on system performance and the measures taken in an NCS design. For a time delay that is random but less than one sampling interval T, we model the system as a time-invariant control system with constant time delay T. For a time delay that is random and greater than one sampling interval T, we consider the system as a control system with packet drop and model it as a jump linear control system. Based on the above models, we propose a systematic method to improve the control system quality of performance by choosing a proper sampling interval to reduce data transmission, optimally scheduling to minimise packet loss and optimising controller design in case of packet loss. The simulation results and lab experiments demonstrate that the design method results in high performance in networked real-time control system.

Dynamic output-feedback-based [formula omitted] design for networked control systems with multipath packet dropouts

In recent years, networked control systems have grown in importance and received increased interest as a new research subject. The process of integration of control and communication in networked control systems has posed a significant theoretical challenge for traditional control theory in terms of system design and analysis. The installation of networked control systems becomes an essential intermediate step toward the final convergence of control, communication, and computing as a result of this integration. We begin by covering the fundamentals of networked control systems, followed by an overview of current research in the subject. We hope that this brief lesson will serve as a catalyst for further research and development of networked control systems, both theoretically and in terms of practical applications.

Model Based Predictive Networked Control Systems

Driven by recent telecommunication demand, shared communication channels are more abundant today than ever before. These shared wired/wireless networks for communication are being exploited more and more in control systems to connect sensors, controllers and actuators resulting in so-called networked control systems (NCSs). NCSs replace the more traditional control systems where dedicated point-to-point (wired) connections are being used. The advantages of using NCS technology are inexpensive and easily modifiable communication links which allow control algorithms to be easily implemented in situations where dedicated connections are not possible (either economically or physically). However, the drawback is that the control system is susceptible to undesirable (possibly destabilizing) side-effects such as time-varying transmission intervals, time-varying delays, packet dropouts, quantization and a shared communication medium. These network-induced effects undermine fundamental assumptions on which traditional control theory is built and, therefore, it is essential to develop new techniques and tools that can be used to analyze and/or design control systems which communicate via a shared network. This thesis advances NCS analysis and design methodologies by contributing new theoretical developments, new software tools and new experimental validation results. The first new theoretical development is in the area of analyzing robust stability properties with respect to network-induced effects. A sum of squares (SOS) approach for a class of nonlinear NCSs incorporating bounded time-varying delays, bounded time-varying transmission intervals and a shared communication medium is developed. Mathematical models that describe these nonlinear NCSs are cast into suitable hybrid system formulations. Based on these hybrid system formulations, (families of) Lyapunov functions are constructed using SOS techniques. Amongst other benefits, it is shown that this technique improves the guaranteed robustness margins compared to existing work. The second new theoretical development concerns the design of networkaware decentralized controllers guaranteeing robust stability properties with respect to network-induced effects. We develop one of the first approaches based on semidefinite programming techniques to synthesize stabilizing decentralized observer-based output-feedback controllers for linear plants where the controllers, sensors and actuators are connected via a shared communication network subject to time-varying transmission intervals and delays. To effectively deal with the shared communication medium, a switched observer structure is adopted that switches based on the transmitted measured outputs and a switched controller structure is also adopted that switches based on the transmitted control inputs at each transmission time. By taking a discrete-time switched linear system perspective on modeling these decentralized NCSs, we are able to derive a general model that captures all these networked and decentralized control aspects. We provide linear matrix inequality (LMI)-based synthesis conditions which, if satisfied, provide stabilizing observer-based controllers that are both decentralized and robust to network effects. Regarding new software tools, the first prototype of a toolbox is developed to automate (robust) stability analysis (and controller design) for NCSs. Specifically, it is shown that the toolbox can be employed to efficiently verify if a linear time-invariant (LTI) plant and an LTI controller interconnected with a shared network are robust to certain network imperfections. The main intention of the toolbox is to make the available theory readily accessible to and applicable for the general control community. Additionally, the chosen software structure enables the incorporation of custom models or custom stability/performance analysis conditions in an easy manner, thereby allowing the control community to contribute and to further develop the toolbox. Finally, an experimental case study involving a wirelessly controlled inverted pendulum/cart system is investigated. In particular, the communication network itself is analyzed such that the network-induced effects can be characterized in terms of bounds on the transmission intervals and transmission delays. Based on these bounds, the prototype toolbox is applied to analyze the robustness regions for different performance specifications, which aid in tuning the controller to achieve more closed-loop robustness with respect to the network-induced effects. This leads to a validation of the developed theory in an experimental setting. In addition to the validation of the developed theory, many new insights into the network behavior are obtained and explained, thereby raising new interesting questions for future research on NCSs.

The rapid growth in the size and complexity of modern Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) imposes increasing demand for the embedded resources, especially the communication resources. As a result, resource-efficient CPS design has become an important issue. Towards the design of networked embedded control systems, a major branch of CPS, reliable and deterministic communication is able to achieve satisfactory control performance. However, the amount of this type of resource that can be provided by the embedded platform is often limited. On the other hand, it is difficult to guarantee the control performance with non-deterministic communication resources, due to their unpredictable behavior. In this paper, we propose a novel control scheme to efficiently utilize elastic communication resources. In general, the non-deterministic communication resources are flexibly deployed on top of the deterministic communication resources to achieve stability and good control performance. In the rare worst-case, when non-deterministic communication is completely unavailable, the deterministic communication resources are used to guarantee stability and the control performance satisfying the design requirement. The experimental results show that the performance of the control application is ensured to satisfy the design requirement in the worst case and that better control performance is achieved when non-deterministic resources are available.

The uncertainties of network communication in networked control systems (NCS) based on CAN are studied carefully in this paper, which is the main factor of affecting the performances of closed loop control systems. And a new NCS method via dynamic predicting control (DPC) is presented especially for power plants. The simulation results show that it can avoid the adverse impacts of the network-induced delay or dropping network packets and improve the dynamic performance of control systems obviously.

With the information technology development of the modern ship, integrated management platform system (IPMS) has received great attention. The IPMS network architecture has the advantages of low cost, easy maintenance and great flexibility. But it inevitably introduces network delay, packet loss and other issues, so the networked control system modelling and controller design over the IPMS network becomes more and more important. In this paper, a new sliding mode networked controller, based on the T-S fuzzy model, is proposed to deal with the problems of uncertainty and disturbances in networked control system (NCS). Firstly, we choose the time delay as premise variables of the fuzzy system, so that the system with control time delay is transformed into one with no time delay based on the fuzzy fusion technology. And then, the global sliding surface is designed by the parallel distributed compensation technique. Adaptive reaching law and disturbances prediction methods are researched. The stability of IPMS networked sliding mode control system is analysed. Finally, with a certain variable time delay, the simulation results illustrate that the proposed networked controller is effective.

In this paper, the robust H∞ control problem is developed for a class of linear time-varying networked control system (NCS) with uncertainties and external disturbance. In network, the network-induced delay and packet dropouts are simultaneously considered. Firstly, a discrete-time switched system model is established based on the signals transmission delay in network. Then, a time-varying H∞ controller is designed. Such the controller can vary according to delay in network. Furthermore, by constructing delay-dependent Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional, a sufficient condition is given to guarantee that the closed-loop system is stochastically stable with an H∞ disturbance attenuation level in terms of nonlinear matrix inequalities. In order to solve the controller gain, the cone complementarity linearization (CCL) algorithm is employed. Finally, a networked DC motor control system is analyzed to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Integrated Design of Fault Tolerant Networked Control Systems

Network control system (NCS) is a kind of distributed control system, which is widely used in industrial control process. The communication network is used to exchange information and control signals among various physical components of subsystems. The transmission of data and information on the communication network to achieve system control will lead to the inevitable delay of information transmission time, which will reduce the performance and even make the system unstable. Reducing network traffic is one of the most effective methods to reduce the impact of network control system delay on system performance. This paper discusses the adjustable deadband as a method to reduce network traffic in networked control systems, and proposes a modeling method of networked control systems with random delay and communication constraints based on quasi T-S fuzzy model. Based on robust fault-tolerant control theory and information scheduling theory, the integrity design of this kind of networked control system is analyzed. After detailed theoretical analysis, simulation results are given to further verify the proposed scheme.

Communication jamming across various durations and frequencies leads to unpredictable and time-varying measurement transmission intervals in networked systems. Consequently, the discrete-time models of filtering error systems become time-dependent, thereby complicating the design of filters. This paper addresses the ongoing challenge of [Formula: see text] filtering for networked sampled-data systems subjected to communication jamming attacks. By incorporating the uncertain model within a polytopic framework, the analysis and synthesis conditions for a full-order [Formula: see text] filter are expressed as linear matrix inequalities. The proposed filter guarantees both asymptotic stability and [Formula: see text] performance under stealthy jamming attacks. A key novelty of the proposed approach is that it operates without requiring prior knowledge of the jammer's active or inactive periods. Another advantage of the method lies in its capability to tune the desired level of accuracy by increasing the number of vertices in the polytopic model, albeit at the cost of higher computational demand. Three benchmark examples are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed strategy and to compare its performance with existing filters. The proposed filter achieves over 80% improvement in [Formula: see text] performance compared to existing methods. Its offline design and enhanced performance make it particularly suitable for networked and embedded control systems with constrained computational or communication capabilities.

In the past, control system networks were isolated from public external networks, so there was no way to access the control system networks from external networks. Security issues of control system networks were originated and guaranteed by itself. It can be a security by obscurity. Recently, most of devices in the control systems are changing with communication capability, and the interoperability between devices is very significant. Thus, effective management system for control system networks have been required and this have triggered connection between the control system network and external system networks. These changes make control system management easier than before, but the threat of cyberattacks from external networks are also increasing. To prevent a variety of security attacks, many security standards and solutions are applied to control systems. In this paper, we present scenario-based attack and propose a countermeasure using security control of field devices in order to improve security in control system networks.