A Multi-hop Control Network (MCN) consists of a plant where the communication between sensor, actuator and computational unit is supported by a wireless multi-hop communication network, and data flow is performed using scheduling and routing of sensing and actuation data. We address the problem of characterizing controllability and observability of a MCN, by means of necessary and sufficient conditions on the plant dynamics and on the communication scheduling and routing. We provide a methodology to design scheduling and routing, in order to satisfy controllability and observability of a MCN for any fault occurrence in a given set of configurations of failures.
There exists a wide literature on Networked Control Systems, see for example @cite_3 , @cite_17 , @cite_5 , @cite_0 and references therein. The literature on robust stability of networked control systems (see e.g. @cite_12 , @cite_11 , @cite_15 ) generally addresses stability analysis in presence of packet loss and variable delays, but does not take into account the non--idealities introduced by scheduling and routing communication protocols of multi-hop control networks. When relating our paper with the current research about the interaction of control networks and communication protocols, most efforts in the literature focus on scheduling message and sampling time assignment for sensors actuators and controllers interconnected by wired common-bus networks, e.g. @cite_13 , @cite_20 , @cite_1 , @cite_16 , @cite_4 . The authors in @cite_21 use model predictive control to stabilize a plant over a multi-hop control network, by only considering delay introduced by the routing policy.
@cite_11 @cite_4 @cite_21 @cite_1 @cite_3 @cite_16 @cite_0 @cite_5 @cite_15 @cite_20 @cite_13 @cite_12 @cite_17
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In this paper, we consider a robust network control problem. We consider linear unstable and uncertain discrete time plants with a network between the sensor and controller and the controller and plant. We investigate the effect of data drop out in the form of packet losses. Four distinct control schemes are explored and sufficient conditions to ensure almost sure stability of the closed loop system are derived for each of them in terms of minimum packet arrival rate and the maximum uncertainty. I. INTRODUCTION In the past decade, networked control systems (NCS) have gained much attention from both the control com- munity and the network and communication community. When compared with classical feedback control system, networked control systems have several advantages. For example, they can reduce the system wiring, make the system easy to operate and maintain and later diagnose in case of malfunctioning, and increase system agility (20). Although NCS have advantages, inserting a network in between the plant and the controller introduces many problems as well. For instance, zero-delayed sensing and actuation, perfect information and synchronization are no longer guaranteed in the new system architecture as only finite bandwidth is available and data packet drops and delays may occur due to network traffic conditions. These must be revisited and analyzed before networked control systems become prevalent. Recently, many researchers have spent effort on these issues and some significant results were obtained and many are in progress. Many of the aforementioned issues are studied separately. Tatikonda (19) and Sahai (13) have presented some interesting results in the area of control under communication constraints. Specifically, Tatikonda gave a necessary and sufficient condition on the channel data rate such that a noiseless LTI system in the closed loop is asymptotically stable. He also gave rate results for stabilizing a noisy LTI system over a digital channel. Sahai proposed the notion of anytime capacity to deal with real time estimation and control for a networked control system. In our paper (17), the authors have considered various rate issues under finite bandwidth, packet drops and finite controls. An optimal bit allocation scheme is given in (16) under the networked setting. The effect of pacekt drops on state estimation was studied by Sinopoli, et. al. in (3). It has further been investigated by many researchers including the present authors in (15) and (6). We introduce a novel control network protocol, try-once-discard (TOD), for multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) networked control systems (NCSs), and provide an analytic proof of global exponential stability for both the new protocol and the more commonly used (statically scheduled) access methods. Our approach is to first design the controller using established techniques and considering the network transparency, and then analyze the effect of the network on closed-loop system performance. When implemented, an NCS consists of multiple independent sensors and actuators competing for an access to the network, with no universal clock available to synchronize their actions. Since the nodes act asynchronously, we allow access to the network at anytime, but assume each access occurs before a prescribed deadline, known as the maximum allowable transfer interval. Only one node may access the network at a time. This communication constraint imposed by the network is the main focus of the paper. The performance of the new TOD protocol and the statically scheduled protocols are examined in simulations of an automotive gas turbine and an unstable batch reactor. Remote control over wireless multi-hop networks is considered. Time-varying delays for the transmission of sensor and control data over the wireless network are caused by a randomized multi-hop routing protocol. The characterstics of the routing protocol together with lower-layer network mechanisms give rise to a delay process with high variance and stepwise changing mean. A new predictive control scheme with a delay estimator is proposed in the paper. The estimator is based on a Kalman filter with a change detection algorithm. It is able to track the delay mean changes but efficiently attenuate the high frequency jitter. The control scheme is analyzed and its implementation detailed. Network data from an experimental setup are used to illustrate the efficiency of the approach. The objective of the paper is to provide qualitative insight into the global effects of distributed mechanisms, such as carrier sense multiple access (CSMA) and rate control, on the performance and stability of multi-hop wireless networks. Toward this end, we introduce a linear queueing network model where the service capacity of each node is modulated by the transmission state of its neighbor. We derive lower bounds on the steady-state utilization at each queue of such networks and demonstrate the existence of a phase transition phenomenon, whereby infinitesimal traffic increase at a single node in the network can suddenly render the entire network instable. We also present NS simulation results that show how this phenomenon can actually take place in IEEE 802.11 multi-hop wireless networks. Our results have direct bearing on rate control schemes, in that they indicate a minimum admissible threshold rate required to prevent network instability.