This paper develops the time-delay approach to Networked Control Systems (NCSs) in the presence of variable transmission delays, sampling intervals and communication constraints. The system sensor nodes are supposed to be distributed over a network. Due to communication constraints only one node output is transmitted through the communication channel at once. The scheduling of sensor information towards the controller is ruled by a weighted Try-Once-Discard (TOD) or by Round-Robin (RR) protocols. Differently from the existing results on NCSs in the presence of scheduling protocols (in the frameworks of hybrid and discrete-time systems), we allow the communication delays to be greater than the sampling intervals. A novel hybrid system model for the closed-loop system is presented that contains {\it time-varying delays in the continuous dynamics and in the reset conditions}. A new Lyapunov-Krasovskii method, which is based on discontinuous in time Lyapunov functionals is introduced for the stability analysis of the delayed hybrid systems. Polytopic type uncertainties in the system model can be easily included in the analysis. The efficiency of the time-delay approach is illustrated on the examples of uncertain cart-pendulum and of batch reactor.
In Networked Control Systems (NCS) impairments of the communication channel can be disruptive to stability and performance. In this paper, we consider the problem of scheduling the access to limited communication resources for a number of decoupled closed-loop systems subject to state and input constraint. The control objective is to preserve the invariance property of local state and input sets, such that constraint satisfaction can be guaranteed. Offline and online, state feedback scheduling policies are proposed and illustrated through numerical examples, also in case the network is subject…
This paper deals with Networked Control Systems (NCSs) whose shared networks have limited communication capacity and are prone to data losses. We assume that among (N) plants, only (M < N) plants can communicate with their controllers at any time instant. In addition, a control input, at any time instant, is lost in a channel with a probability (p). Our contributions are threefold. First, we identify necessary and sufficient conditions on the open-loop and closed-loop dynamics of the plants that ensure existence of purely time-dependent periodic scheduling sequences under which stability of ea…
This paper deals with the design of scheduling logics for Networked Control Systems (NCSs) whose shared communication networks have limited capacity. We assume that among \(N\) plants, only \(M\:(< N)\) plants can communicate with their controllers at any time instant. We present an algorithm to allocate the network to the plants periodically such that stability of each plant is preserved. The main apparatus for our analysis is a switched systems representation of the individual plants in an NCS. We rely on multiple Lyapunov-like functions and graph-theoretic arguments to design our scheduling…
This paper deals with the design of scheduling policies for networked control systems whose shared networks have limited communication capacity and the controller to plant channels are vulnerable to jamming attacks. We assume that among N plants, only M (< N) plants can communicate with their controllers at any time instant, and the attack sequences follow an (m,k)-firm model, i.e., in any k consecutive time instants, the control inputs sent to some or all of the plants accessing the communication network, are deactivated at most at m (< k) time instants. We devise a new algorithm to allocate …
We consider the joint design of control and scheduling under stochastic Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks in the context of networked control systems. A sensor takes measurements of the system output and forwards its dynamic state estimates to a remote controller over a packet-dropping link. The controller determines the optimal control law for the process using the estimates it receives. An attacker aims at degrading the control performance by increasing the packet-dropout rate with a DoS attack towards the sensor-controller channel. We assume both the controller and the attacker are rational i…
We analyze the closed-loop control performance of a networked control system that consists of $N$ independent linear feedback control loops, sharing a communication network with $M$ channels ($M<N$). A centralized scheduler, employing a scheduling protocol that produces periodic communication sequences, dictates which feedback loops should utilize all these channels. Under the periodic scheduling protocol, we derive analytical expressions for quantifying the overall control performance of the networked control system in terms of a quadratic function. We also formulate the offline combinatorial…
In this work, we study the problem of supervisory control of networked discrete event systems. We consider lossy communication channels with bounded network delays, for both the control channel and the observation channel. By a model transformation, we transform the networked supervisor synthesis problem into the classical (non-networked) supervisor synthesis problem (for non-deterministic plants), such that the existing supervisor synthesis tools can be used for synthesizing networked supervisors. In particular, we can use the (state-based) normality property for the synthesis of the supremal…
Joint optimization of scheduling and estimation policies is considered for a system with two sensors and two non-collocated estimators. Each sensor produces an independent and identically distributed sequence of random variables, and each estimator forms estimates of the corresponding sequence with respect to the mean-squared error sense. The data generated by the sensors is transmitted to the corresponding estimators, over a bandwidth-constrained wireless network that can support a single packet per time slot. The access to the limited communication resources is determined by a scheduler who …
This paper studies stochastic aperiodic stabilization of a networked control system (NCS) consisting of a continuous-time plant and a discrete-time controller. The plant and the controller are assumed to be connected by communication channels with i.i.d. time-varying delays. The delays are theoretically not required to be bounded even when the plant is unstable in the deterministic sense. In our NCS, the sampling interval is supposed to be determined directly by such communication delays. A necessary and sufficient inequality condition is presented for designing a state-feedback controller sta…
Conventional supervisory control theory assumes full synchronization between the supervisor and the plant. This assumption is violated in a networked-based communication setting due to the presence of delays, and this may result in incorrect behavior of a supervisor obtained from conventional supervisory control theory. This paper presents a technique to synthesize a networked supervisor handling communication delays. For this purpose, first, a networked supervisory control framework is provided, where the supervisor interacts with the plant through control and observation channels, both of wh…
A networked output feedback loop subject to packetized transmissions of the output signal is considered. Based on the small gain theorem, an easy-to-use stability criterion covering two important cases is presented. In the first case a packet numbering mechanism is employed whereas in the second case neither packet numbering nor synchronization between sender and receiver is assumed. The analysis makes use of acausal subsystems and deduces the optimal constant time delay that should be used in a nominal controller design such that additional packet delay variations introduced by the network ar…
This paper presents an overview of the networked supervisory control framework for discrete event systems with imperfect communication networks, which can be divided into the centralized supervisory control setup and the decentralized supervisory control setup. We review the state-of-art networked control frameworks with observation channel delays and control channel delays, for untimed and timed models. Data losses in communication channels are also considered. The review of the state-of-art networked control frameworks will be focused on the following parts: 1) the construction of the networ…
This letter deals with the problem of quantifying resiliency of Networked Control Systems (NCSs) to Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks and variable network delays. Internal exponential stability and $\mathcal{L}_2$ external stability are studied. The closed-loop system is augmented with an auxiliary timer variable and analyzed in a hybrid system framework. Lyapunov-like conditions are given to ensure $0$-input global exponential stability and $\mathcal{L}_2$ external stability. A computationally affordable algorithm based on linear matrix inequalities is devised to provide trade-off curves betwee…
The communication channels used to convey information between the components of wireless networked control systems (WNCSs) are subject to packet losses due to time-varying fading and interference. We consider a wireless networked control scenario, where the packet loss occurs in both the sensor-controller link (sensing link) and the controller-actuator link (actuation link). Moreover, we consider one time-step delay mode observations of the actuation link. While the problems of state feedback optimal control and stabilizability conditions for systems with one time-step delay mode observations …
In this paper, we study the trade-off between the transmission cost and the control performance of the multi-loop networked control system subject to network-induced delay. Within the linear-quadratic-Gaussian (LQG) framework, the joint design of control policy and networking strategy is decomposed into separation optimization problems. Based on the trade-off analysis, a scalable, delay-dependent Value-of-Information (VoI) based scheduling policy is constructed to quantify the value of transmitting the data packet, and enables the decision-makers embedded in subsystems to determine the transmi…
This work mainly investigates the mean-square stability and stabilizability for a single-input single-output networked linear feedback system. The control signal in the networked system is transmitted over an unreliable channel. In this unreliable channel, the data transmission times, referred to as channel induced delays, are random values and the transmitted data could also be dropout with certain probability. The channel induced delays and packet dropout are modeled by an independent and identically distributed stochastic process with a fixed probability mass function. At the channel termin…
We apply deep reinforcement learning (DRL) to design of a networked controller with network delays to complete a temporal control task that is described by a signal temporal logic (STL) formula. STL is useful to deal with a specification with a bounded time interval for a dynamical system. In general, an agent needs not only the current system state but also the past behavior of the system to determine a desired control action for satisfying the given STL formula. Additionally, we need to consider the effect of network delays for data transmissions. Thus, we propose an extended Markov decision…
This work studies the mean-square stability and stabilization problem for networked feedback systems. Data transmission delays in the network channels of the systems are considered. It is assumed that these delays are i.i.d. processes with given probability mass functions (PMFs). A necessary and sufficient condition of mean-square (input-output) stability is studied for the networked feedback systems in terms of the input-output model and state-space model. Furthermore, according to this condition, mean-square stabilization via output feedback is studied for the networked feedback systems.
Filtered Smith predictors are well established for controlling linear plants with constant time delays. Apart from this classical application scenario, they are also employed within networked control loops, where the measurements are sent in separate packets over a transmission channel that is subject to time-varying delays. However, no stability guarantees can be given in this case. The present paper illustrates that the time-varying delays as well as the packetized character of the transmissions have to be taken into account for stability analysis. Hence, three network protocols, which use d…
This manuscript discusses a scalable controller synthesis method for networked systems with a large number of identical subsystems based on the H-infinity control framework. The dynamics of the individual subsystems are described by identical linear time-invariant delay differential equations and the effect of transport and communication delay is explicitly taken into account. The presented method is based on the result that, under a particular assumption on the graph describing the interconnections between the subsystems, the H-infinity norm of the overall system is upper bounded by the robus…
Age of information (AoI) measures information freshness at the receiver. AoI may provide insights into quality of service in communication systems. For this reason, it has been used as a cross-layer metric for wireless communication protocols. In this work, we employ AoI to calculate penalty functions for a centralized resource scheduling problem. We consider a single wireless link shared by multiple, heterogeneous control systems where each sub-system has a time-varying packet loss probability. Sub-systems are competing for network resources to improve the accuracy of their remote estimation …
This paper studies the tracking control problem of nonlinear networked and quantized control systems (NQCSs) with communication delays. The desired trajectory is generated by a reference system. The communication network is to guarantee the information transmission among the plant, the reference system and the controller. The communication network also brings about some undesired issues like time-varying transmission intervals, time-varying transmission delays, packet dropouts, scheduling and quantization effects, which lead to non-vanishing network-induced errors and affect the tracking perfo…
We propose a distributed (single) target tracking scheme based on networked estimation and consensus algorithms over static sensor networks. The tracking part is based on linear time-difference-of-arrival (TDOA) measurement proposed in our previous works. This paper, in particular, develops delay-tolerant distributed filtering solutions over sparse data-transmission networks. We assume general arbitrary heterogeneous delays at different links. This may occur in many realistic large-scale applications where the data-sharing between different nodes is subject to latency due to communication-reso…
In the present work, an embedded PI controller is designed for speed regulation of DC servomotor over a wireless network. The embedded controller integrates PI controller with a proposed time-delay estimator and an adaptive digital Smith predictor for its real time operation, which is the novelty of the work. The real time or rather online operation of the developed embedded controller over wireless network is possible mainly due to the contributions in terms of proposing a new empirical formula for time-delay estimation, viable approximation of time-delay, discretization scheme in developing …
In the context of networked discrete-event systems (DESs), communication delays and losses exist between the plant and the supervisor for observation and between the supervisor and the actuator for control. In this paper, we first introduce a new framework for supervisory control of networked DESs. Under the introduced framework, we address the state estimation problem for supervisor synthesis of networked DESs with both communication delays and losses. The estimation algorithm considers the effect of the controls imposed on the system. Additionally, the estimation algorithm is based on the co…
Networked control systems (NCSs) are feedback control loops that are closed over a communication network. Emerging applications, such as telerobotics, drones and autonomous driving are the most prominent examples of such systems. Regular and timely information sharing between the components of NCSs is essential to fulfill the desired control tasks, as stale information can lead to performance degradation or even physical damage. In this work, we consider multiple heterogeneous NCSs that transmit their system state over a shared physical wireless channel towards a gateway node. We conduct a com…
An analytical framework for analysis and design of networked control systems with random delays and packet losses
National Institute of Technology- Calicut（卡利卡特国家理工学院）；ABB India Corporate Research Center（ABB印度企业研究中心）；National Institute of Technology-Tiruchirappalli（蒂鲁奇拉帕利国家理工学院）
In decentralized networked supervisory control of discrete-event systems (DESs), the local supervisors observe event occurrences subject to observation delays to make correct control decisions. Delay coobservability describes whether these local supervisors can make sufficient observations. In this paper, we provide an efficient way to verify delay coobservability. For each controllable event, we partition the specification language into a finite number of sets such that strings in different sets have different lengths. For each of the sets, we construct a verifier to check if delay coobservab…
