With emphasis on flexible resource management in networked and embedded real-time control systems operating in dynamic environments with uncertainty, this book is devoted to the integration of control with computing and communication. It covers the authors' recent and original research results within a unified framework of feedback scheduling. This useful reference also includes rich example problems, case studies, and extensive references to the literature.

This book presents Networked Control System (NCS) as a particular kind of a real-time distributed system (RTDS), composed of a set of nodes, interconnected by a network, and able to develop a complete control process. It describes important parts of the control process such as sensor and actuator activities, which rely on a real-time operating system, and a real-time communication network. As the use of common bus network architecture introduces different forms of uncertainties between sensors, actuators, and controllers, several approaches such as reconfigurable systems have been developed to tackle this problem. Moreover, modeling NCS is a challenging procedure, since there are several non-linear situations, like local saturations, uncertain time delays, dead-zones, or local situations, it is necessary to deal with. The book describes a novel strategy for modelling and control based on a fuzzy control approach and codesign strategies.

The problem of jointly designing a robust controller and an intelligent scheduler for networked control systems (NCSs) is addressed in this thesis. NCSs composing of multiple plants that share a single channel communication network with uncertain time-varying transmission times are modeled as switched polytopic systems with additive norm-bounded uncertainty. Switching is deployed to represent scheduling, the polytopic uncertainty to overapproximatively describe the uncertain time-varying transmission times. Based on the resulting NCS model and a state feedback control law, the control and scheduling codesign problem is then introduced and formulated as a robust (minimax) optimization problem with the objective of minimizing the worst-case value of an associated infinite time-horizon quadratic cost function. Five robust codesign strategies are investigated for tackling the introduced optimization problem, namely: Periodic control and scheduling (PCS), Receding-horizon control and scheduling (RHCS), Implementation-aware control and scheduling (IACS), Event-based control and scheduling (EBCS), Prediction-based control and scheduling (PBCS). All these codesign strategies are determined from LMI optimization problems based on the Lyapunov theory. The properties of each are evaluated and compared in terms of computational complexity and control performance based on simulation and experimental study, showing their effectiveness in improving the performance while utilizing the limited communication resources very efficiently.

Networked Control Systems (NCS) is a growing field of application and calls for the development of integrated approaches requiring multidisciplinary skills in control, real-time computing and communication protocols. This book describes co-design approaches, and establishes the links between the QoC (Quality of Control) and QoS (Quality of Service) of the network and computing resources. The methods and tools described in this book take into account, at design level, various parameters and properties that must be satisfied by systems controlled through a network. Among the important network properties examined are the QoC, the dependability of the system, and the feasibility of the real-time scheduling of tasks and messages. Correct exploitation of these approaches allows for efficient design, diagnosis, and implementation of the NCS. This book will be of great interest to researchers and advanced students in automatic control, real-time computing, and networking domains, and to engineers tasked with development of NCS, as well as those working in related network design and engineering fields.

Optimal and Robust Scheduling for Networked Control Systems tackles the problem of integrating system components—controllers, sensors, and actuators—in a networked control system. It is common practice in industry to solve such problems heuristically, because the few theoretical results available are not comprehensive and cannot be readily applied by practitioners. This book offers a solution to the deterministic scheduling problem that is based on rigorous control theoretical tools but also addresses practical implementation issues. Helping to bridge the gap between control theory and computer science, it suggests that the consideration of communication constraints at the design stage will significantly improve the performance of the control system. Technical Results, Design Techniques, and Practical Applications The book brings together well-known measures for robust performance as well as fast stochastic algorithms to assist designers in selecting the best network configuration and guaranteeing the speed of offline optimization. The authors propose a unifying framework for modelling NCSs with time-triggered communication and present technical results. They also introduce design techniques, including for the codesign of a controller and communication sequence and for the robust design of a communication sequence for a given controller. Case studies explore the use of the FlexRay TDMA and time-triggered control area network (CAN) protocols in an automotive control system. Practical Solutions to Your Time-Triggered Communication Problems This unique book develops ready-to-use engineering tools for large-scale control system integration with a focus on robustness and performance. It emphasizes techniques that are directly applicable to time-triggered communication problems in the automotive industry and in avionics, robotics, and automated manufacturing.

This thesis addresses optimal control of discrete-time switched linear systems with application to networked embedded control systems (NECSs). Part I focuses on optimal control and scheduling of discrete-time switched linear systems. The objective is to simultaneously design a control law and a switching (scheduling) law such that a cost function is minimized. This optimization problem exhibits exponential complexity. Taming the complexity is a major challenge. Two novel methods are presented to approach this optimization problem: Receding-horizon control and scheduling relies on the receding horizon principle. The optimization problem is solved based on relaxed dynamic programming, allowing to reduce complexity by relaxing optimality within predefined bounds. The solution can be expressed as a piecewise linear (PWL) state feedback control law. Stability is addressed via an a priori stability condition based on a terminal weighting matrix and several a posteriori stability criteria based on constructing piecewise quadratic Lyapunov functions and on utilizing the cost function as a candidate Lyapunov function. Moreover, a region-reachability criterion is derived. Periodic control and scheduling relies on periodic control theory. Both offline and online scheduling are studied. The optimization problem is solved based on periodic control and exhaustive search. The online scheduling solution can again be expressed as a PWL state feedback control law. Stability is guaranteed inherently. Several methods are proposed to reduce the online complexity based on relaxation and heuristics. Part II focuses on optimal control and scheduling of NECSs. The NECS is modeled as a block-diagonal discrete-time switched linear system. Various control and scheduling codesign strategies are derived based on the methods from Part I regarding the structural properties of NECSs. The methods presented in Part I and II are finally evaluated in a case study.

Real-time systems are used in a wide range of applications, including control, sensing, multimedia, etc. Scheduling is a central problem for these computing/communication systems since it is responsible for software execution in a timely manner. This book, the second of two volumes on the subject, brings together knowledge on specific topics and discusses the recent advances for some of them. It addresses foundations as well as the latest advances and findings in real-time scheduling, giving comprehensive references to important papers, but the chapters are short and not overloaded with confusing details. Coverage includes scheduling approaches for networks and for energy autonomous systems. Other sophisticated issues, such as feedback control scheduling and probabilistic scheduling, are also addressed. This book can serve as a textbook for courses on the topic in bachelor's degrees and in more advanced master's degree programs. It also provides a reference for computer scientists and engineers involved in the design or the development of Cyber-Physical Systems which require up-to-date real-time scheduling solutions.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of wireless technologies for industrial network systems. The authors first describe the concept of industrial network systems and their application to industrial automation. They then go on to cover the role of sensing and control in industrial network systems, and the challenge of sensing and control in the industrial wireless environment. Then, the existing techniques for resource efficiency information transmission are introduced and studied. Afterward, the authors introduce sensing and control-oriented transmission for industrial network systems, which take advantage of spatial diversity gain to overcome the interference and fading, which in turn improves the transmission reliability without expending extra spectrum resources and enlarging the transmission delay. Subsequently, edge assisted efficient transmission schemes are introduced, which integrate the capacities of communication, computing, and control to relieve the contradiction of resource limitation and massive data. Finally, the authors discuss open research issues and future works about information transmission in industrial network systems.

Optimal Design of Distributed Control and Embedded Systems focuses on the design of special control and scheduling algorithms based on system structural properties as well as on analysis of the influence of induced time-delay on systems performances. It treats the optimal design of distributed and embedded control systems (DCESs) with respect to communication and calculation-resource constraints, quantization aspects, and potential time-delays induced by the associated communication and calculation model. Particular emphasis is put on optimal control signal scheduling based on the system state. In order to render this complex optimization problem feasible in real time, a time decomposition is based on periodicity induced by the static scheduling is operated. The authors present a co-design approach which subsumes the synthesis of the optimal control laws and the generation of an optimal schedule of control signals on real-time networks as well as the execution of control tasks on a single processor. The authors also operate a control structure modification or a control switching based on a thorough analysis of the influence of the induced time-delay system influence on stability and system performance in order to optimize DCES performance in case of calculation and communication resource limitations. Although the richness and variety of classes of DCES preclude a completely comprehensive treatment or a single “best” method of approaching them all, this co-design approach has the best chance of rendering this problem feasible and finding the optimal or some sub-optimal solution. The text is rounded out with references to such applications as car suspension and unmanned vehicles. Optimal Design of Distributed Control and Embedded Systems will be of most interest to academic researchers working on the mathematical theory of DCES but the wide range of environments in which they are used also promotes the relevance of the text for control practitioners working in the avionics, automotive, energy-production, space exploration and many other industries.

This Proceedings book reports on new and innovative solutions regarding methodologies and applications of modeling and simulation. It includes a set of selected, extended papers from the 6th International Conference on Simulation and Modeling Methodologies, Technologies and Applications (SIMULTECH 2016), held in Lisbon, Portugal, from 29 to 31 July, 2016. The conference brought together researchers, engineers and practitioners interested in methodologies and applications of modeling and simulation. SIMULTECH 2016 received 76 submissions from 35 countries and all continents. After a double-blind paper review performed by the Program Committee, 18% were accepted as full papers and thus selected for oral presentations. Additional papers were accepted as short papers and posters. A further selection was made after the Conference, based also on the assessment of presentation quality and audience interest, so that this book includes the extended and revised versions of the very best papers from SIMULTECH 2016.