Networked Control Systems

Abstract

Networked control systems (NCSs) are spatially distributed systems in which the sensors, actuators, and controllers are connected through a shared communication network. The advantages of the network architectures include reduced system wiring, plug and play devices, increased system agility, and ease of system diagnosis and maintenance. Meanwhile, the presence of a communication network in a control loop induces many imperfections. Therefore, the analysis and synthesis of NCSs have received considerable attention in the last two decades. In this article, we review fundamental communication imperfections in NCSs and the main approaches to the modeling of NCSs. Then, recent results on time‐delay approach to event‐triggered control are recalled. The article highlights time‐delay approach developed to modeling, analysis and synthesis of NCSs, under communication constraints, with a particular focus on Round‐Robin, Try‐once‐discard, and stochastic protocols. The time‐delay approach allows communication delays to be larger than the sampling intervals in the presence of scheduling protocols. Moreover, some results on networked control of distributed parameter systems are introduced. Finally, some open problems are briefly addressed.