Structural Properties,LQG Control and Scheduling of a Networked Control System with Bandwidth Limitations and Transmission Delays

The problem of simultaneous LQG control and scheduling of a Networked Control System (NCS) with constant network induced delays at input and output and bandwidth limitations is investigated. Delays are considered at plant as well as controller side. Sufficient conditions for controllability, stabilizability, reconstructibility and detectability of the underlying networked control system are drawn. The proposed conditions extend previous works on structural properties of NCS by capturing both plant and controller side delays together with bandwidth limitations. A framework for computing the optimal LQG controller for the NCS with a fixed scheduling is provided. The proposed modeling approach facilitates use of LQG as well as other control methods for NCSs with delays and bandwidth limitations. In order to optimize performance, a semi-online scheduling procedure is proposed based on an offline look up table. The look up table assigns an optimal schedule with associated optimal LQG controller to initial conditions. The proposed scheme improves previous results by online deployment of schedule and LQG control with stability guarantees and very low computational overhead. A simulation example with communication delays, packet losses and bandwidth limitations in both sensor and actuator sides is included. Static optimal periodic communication sequence, Optimal Pointer Placement (OPP) approach proposed in previous works, a random access scheduling method representing contention based access policies and the proposed method are simulated and compared.      

Multirate control with incomplete information over Profibus-DP network

When a process field bus-decentralized peripherals (Profibus-DP) network is used in an industrial environment, a deterministic behaviour is usually claimed. However, due to some concerns such as bandwidth limitations, lack of synchronisation among different clocks and existence of time-varying delays, a more complex problem must be faced. This problem implies the transmission of irregular and, even, random sequences of incomplete information. The main consequence of this issue is the appearance of different sampling periods at different network devices. In this paper, this aspect is checked by means of a detailed Profibus-DP timescale study. In addition, in order to deal with the different periods, a delay-dependent dual-rate proportional-integral-derivative control is introduced. Stability for the proposed control system is analysed in terms of linear matrix inequalities.     

Design of a bandwidth-on-demand (BoD) protocol for satellite networks modelled as time-delay systems

Bandwidth-on-demand (BoD) access protocols address the problem of guaranteeing a high exploitation of the valuable satellite bandwidth in the presence of large amount of data traffic accessing the satellite network. The novelty of the proposed BoD scheme consists in the use of control theory concepts to model the satellite network as a time-delay system and to generate the bandwidth requests. The proposed scheme, based on the internal model control and on the Smith's principle, yields the following advantages: (i) when the network is not congested, it provides upper-bounds to the queue lengths and to the queuing delays of the satellite terminal buffers; (ii) it is capable of recovering from congested states; (iii) it is independent of the statistical characteristics of the traffic entering the satellite network; (iv) the requests are such that the satellite terminals have always enough traffic to use all the requested bandwidth (so that no bandwidth is wasted). The paper includes simulations showing the effectiveness of the proposed BoD scheme. The work underlying this paper has been performed within the GEOCAST project belonging to the fifth framework Information Society and Technology programme of the European Union.     

网络控制系统的研究现状

网络控制系统是通过共享通信网络,在传感器,执行器和控制器之间传输信息,并且在地理位置上分散的系统.回顾了近年来关于网络控制系统在数据包丢失,采样和网络时滞等信道缺陷影响下的稳定性分析问题.     

Best tracking and regulation performance under control energy constraint

This paper studies optimal tracking and regulation control problems, in which objective functions of tracking error and regulated response, defined by integral square measures, are to be minimized jointly with the control effort, where the latter is measured by the plant input energy. Our primary objective in this work is to search for fundamental design limitations beyond those known to be imposed by nonminimum phase zeros, unstable poles, and time delays. For this purpose, we solve the problems explicitly by deriving analytical expressions for the best achievable performance. It is found that this performance limit depends not only on the plant nonminimum phase zeros, time delays, and unstable poles-a fact known previously-but also on the plant gain in the entire frequency range. The results thus reveal and quantify another source of fundamental performance limitations beyond those already known, which are nonexistent when only conventional performance objectives such as tracking and regulation are addressed without taking into account the control energy constraint. Among other things, they exhibit how the lightly damped poles, the anti-resonant zeros, as well as the bandwidth of the plant may affect the performance.     

Trading quantization precision for update rates for systems with limited communication in the uplink channel

In many situations, control applications have to exchange information through limited bandwidth communication channels, which affect their behavior. For that reason, there is a strong need for methods that maximize the relevancy of the exchanged control signals. In general, increasing control signals’ update frequency improves the disturbance rejection abilities whereas increasing their quantization precision improves the steady state performance. However, when the bandwidth is limited, increasing the update frequency necessitates the reduction of the quantization precision and vice versa. Motivated by these observations, and focusing on the uplink bandwidth limitations, an approach for the dynamical online state feedback assignment of control inputs’ quantization precision and update rate is proposed. This approach, which is based on the model predictive control technique, enables us to choose the update rate and the quantization levels of control signals from a predefined set, in order to optimize the control performance. Practical stability properties of the approach are then studied. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is illustrated on a simulation example.     

随机时延网络化不确定系统的鲁棒H∞滤波

研究了一类具有随机时延的网络化不确定系统的 H∞ 滤波器设计问题. 这类时延的产生是由于传感器和滤波器通过有限带宽的网络连接而引起的系统测量数据的滞后, 而且它是随机发生的. 本文采用满足 Bernoulli 分布随机变量来描述测量数据的这种随机时延. 利用线性矩阵不等式, 给出了全阶和降阶的滤波器存在的充分条件. 所设计的滤波器使得滤波误差系统是均方指数稳定且具有给定的H∞ 性能. 数值仿真表明设计方法的有效性.     

具有随机通讯时延的离散网络化系统的H∞滤波器设计

由于传感器和滤波器是通过有限带宽的网络连接的,因此系统的测量数据经常会出现时延,而且时延是随机的.本文讨论了具有一步随机通讯时延的离散网络化系统的H∞滤波器设计问题.利用线性矩阵不等式方法设计线性滤波器使得滤波误差系统是均方意义下指数稳定并具有给定的H∞性能.滤波器参数通过凸优化技术求解一个线性矩阵不等式得到.数值仿真表明设计方法的有效性.     

Event‐triggered predictive control for networked control systems with network‐induced delays and packet dropouts

This paper presents an event‐triggered predictive control approach to stabilize a networked control system subject to network‐induced delays and packet dropouts, for which the states are not measurable. An observer‐based event generator is first designed according to the deviation between the state estimation at the current time and the one at the last trigger time. A predictive control scheme with a selector is then proposed to compensate the effect of network‐induced delays and packet dropouts. Sufficient conditions for stabilization of the networked control system are derived by solving linear matrix inequalities and the corresponding gains of the controller and the observer are obtained. It is shown that the event‐triggered implementation is able to realize reduction in communication and save bandwidth resources of feedback channel networks. A simulation example of an inverted pendulum model illustrates the efficacy of the proposed scheme.     

Feedback Stabilization Over Signal-to-Noise Ratio Constrained Channels

There has recently been significant interest in feedback stabilization problems with communication constraints including constraints on the available data rate. Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) constraints are one way in which data-rate limits arise, and are the focus of this paper. In both continuous and discrete-time settings, we show that there are limitations on the ability to stabilize an unstable plant over a SNR constrained channel using finite-dimensional linear time invariant (LTI) feedback. In the case of state feedback, or output feedback with a delay-free, minimum phase plant, these limitations in fact match precisely those that might have been inferred by considering the associated ideal Shannon capacity data rate over the same channel. In the case of LTI output feedback, additional limitations are shown to apply if the plant is nonminimum phase. In this case, we show that for a continuous-time nonminimum phase plant, a periodic linear time varying feedback scheme with fast sampling may be used to recover the original SNR requirement at the cost of robustness properties. The proposed framework inherently captures channel noise effects in a simple formulation suited to conventional LTI control performance and robustness analysis, and has potential to handle time delays and bandwidth constraints in a variety of control over communication links problems.     

多通道约束下的网络控制系统的最优跟踪性能

本文针对双通道约束下的线性时不变网络控制系统的随机信号跟踪性能极限问题进行了研究.网络通信包含通信噪声和通信带宽两种信道因素.被控系统考虑是非最小相位和不稳定系统,并且系统包含多个不同的非最小相位零点和多个不同的不稳定极点.对上行通道和下行通道都存在通信带宽约束及高斯白噪声影响的情形,从频域角度,通过采用双自由度控制器和尤拉参数化方法,获得了此类网络控制系统的最优可达的跟踪性能.研究结果表明网络控制系统的跟踪性能极限完全由被控对象的结构特征(非最小相位零点、不稳定极点以及被控对象的系统增益),参考输入信号和网络特性(高斯白噪声的统计特征、通信信道带宽)所决定.最后,仿真结果检证了所得结果的正确性.     

Resource-aware MPC for constrained linear systems: Two rollout approaches

In systems with resource constraints, such as actuation limitations in sparse control applications or limited bandwidth in networked control systems, it is desirable to use control signals that are either sparse or sporadically changing in time. Motivated by these applications, in this paper we propose two resource-aware MPC schemes for discrete-time linear systems subject to state and input constraints. The two MPC schemes exploit ideas from rollout strategies to determine simultaneously the new (continuous) control inputs and the (discrete) time instants at which the control actions are updated. The first scheme provides performance guarantees by design, in the sense that it allows the user to select a desired suboptimal level of performance, where the degree of suboptimality provides a trade-off between the guaranteed closed-loop control performance on the one hand and the utilization of (communication/actuation) resources on the other hand. The second scheme provides a guaranteed (average) resource utilization, while cleverly allocating these resources in order to maximize the control performance. By means of numerical examples, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed strategies.     

多输入多输出非线性多时滞系统的直接自适应模糊跟踪控制

针对多输入多输出非线性多时滞系统,提出了一种直接自适应模糊跟踪控制方案．该方案有机综合了自适应控制和H∞ 控制,构建了一种自适应时滞模糊逻辑系统用来逼近有多重时滞的未知函数;设计了H∞ 补偿器来抵消模糊逼近误差和外部扰动．根据跟踪误差给出了参数调节规律,构造了包含时滞的李亚普诺夫函数,从而证明了误差闭环系统满足期望的H∞ 跟踪性能．仿真结果表明了该方案的可行性．     

A robust two degree-of-freedom controller for systems with both model and measurement uncertainty

This paper presents a design method for robust two degree-of-freedom (DOF) controllers that optimize the control performance with respect to both model uncertainty and signal measurement uncertainty. In many situations, non-causal feedforward is a welcome control addition when closed loop feedback bandwidth limitations exist due to plant dynamics such as: delays, non-minimum phase zeros, poorly placed zeros and poles (Xie, Alleyne, Greer, and Deneault (2013); Xie (2013), etc. However, feedforward control is sensitive to both model uncertainty and signal measurement uncertainty. The latter is particularly true when the feedforward is responding to pre-measured disturbance signals. The combined sensitivity will deteriorate the feedforward controller performance if care is not taken in design. In this paper a two DOF design is introduced which optimizes the performance based on a given estimate of uncertainties. The controller design uses H_∞ tools to balance the controlled system bandwidth with increased sensitivity to signal measurement uncertainties. A successful case study on an experimental header height control system for a combine harvester is shown as an example of the approach.     

Stabilization of networked control systems with nonuniform random sampling periods

In this paper, a new linear delayed delta operator switched system model is proposed to describe networked control systems with packets dropout and network‐induced delays. The plant is a continuous‐time system, which is sampled by time‐varying random sampling periods. A general delta domain Lyapunov stability criterion is given for delta operator switched systems with time delays. Sufficient conditions for asymptotic stability of closed‐loop networked control systems with both packets dropout and network‐induced delays are presented in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). A verification theorem is given to show the solvability of the stabilization conditions by solving a class of finite LMIs. Both the case of data packets arrive instantly and the case of invariant sampling periods in delta operator systems are given, respectively. Three numerical examples are given to illustrate the effectiveness and potential of the developed techniques. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Ada and real-time robotics: lessons learned

The Supervisory Telerobotics Laboratory (Steler) at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has developed a prototype telerobotic system to demonstrate the type of technology that will be used aboard Space Station Freedom Although the concept of telerobotics for space exploration is not new, the Steler system broke new ground in its demonstration of the feasibility of a local-remote architecture, including ground-remote control, for space applications. A remote space environment poses some interesting computational challenges to ground-remote control of space applications. A remote site has limited computation facilities, is burdened by minimal bandwidth and by round-trip communication delays of as much as 8 seconds, and yet is expected to respond quickly, predictably, and with recoverability to any anomalous situation. Additional design constraints are imposed by NASA's limitations on software, including on-board programs for the robot, being uploaded to the remote site without prior flight qualification. The authors discuss the use of Ada to meet the computational requirements of this project     

双率采样系统的基于观测器的网络化H∞控制

研究一类带有网络传输时滞和丢包的双率采样系统的网络化H∞控制问题. 假设对象状态变量被分成两个分向量, 同一分向量的状态变量由同一类传感器以相同周期采样, 且两类传感器的采样频率不同. 采样后的分向量分别通过非理想网络传输到控制器端. 考虑到双率采样、网络传输时滞和丢包现象, 引入同步观测器来估计对象状态并设计基于估计状态的控制器来镇定双率采样系统. 基于这个思路, 将双率采样的网络化控制系统建模为带有两个时变时滞的连续系统. 利用Lyapunov-Krasovskii泛函方法, 以矩阵不等式形式给出该系统的稳定性判据和控制器设计方法. 最后, 通过数值例子验证所提方法的有效性.     

STABILITY ANALYSIS OF NETWORKED SYSTEMS WITH PACKET DROPOUT AND TRANSMISSION DELAYS: DISCRETE‐TIME CASE

This paper analyzes the stability of networked control systems (NCSs) with data packet dropout and transmission delays induced by communication channels. Discrete‐time NCSs with data packet dropout and transmission delays are modeled as linear systems with time‐varying delays. Sufficient conditions for the stability of the NCSs are established in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) by using the Lyapunov function method. The case of NCSs with multiple‐packet transmission is also studied. A numerical example is presented to illustrate our proposed approach.     

多输入多输出多重时延非线性系统的自适应模糊控制

针对多输入多输出多重时延非线性系统,提出了一种自适应模糊跟踪控制方案．该方案有机综合了自适应控制和H∞控制.文中构建了一种自适应时延模糊逻辑系统用来逼近有多重时延的未知函数;设计了H∞补偿器来抵消模糊逼近误差和外部扰动．根据跟踪误差给出了参数调节规律．构造了包含时延的李雅普诺夫函数,从而证明了误差闭环系统满足期望的H∞跟踪性能．仿真结果表明了该方案的可行性．     

Stability limit of human-in-the-loop model reference adaptive control architectures

Model reference adaptive control (MRAC) offers mathematical and design tools to effectively cope with many challenges of real-world control problems such as exogenous disturbances, system uncertainties and degraded modes of operations. On the other hand, when faced with human-in-the-loop settings, these controllers can lead to unstable system trajectories in certain applications. To establish an understanding of stability limitations of MRAC architectures in the presence of humans, here a mathematical framework is developed whereby an MRAC is designed in conjunction with a class of linear human models including human reaction delays. This framework is then used to reveal, through stability analysis tools, the stability limit of the MRAC–human closed-loop system and the range of model parameters respecting this limit. An illustrative numerical example of an adaptive flight control application with a Neal–Smith pilot model is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of developed approaches.