Integrated Controller Design Methods and Communication Services for Networked Control Systems (NCS)

Networked Control Systems are constantly gaining importance for the implementation of so-called Cyber-Physical Systems, where computers control physical processes. Such systems comprise sensors, actuators, and digital controllers, which are often distributed over a wide area. Consequently, measurements and control signals have to be transferred using a communication network to close the control loop. The essential goal of this project is to design methods bridging the gap between control systems and communication systems. In particular, this includes the design of network models that can serve as basis for control systems providing a guaranteed quality of control on the one hand. On the other hand, these network models should allow for an efficient implementation in IP-based communication infrastructures. During the first funding period, a network model has been designed that distinguishes between deterministic (reliable) transmissions for guaranteeing stability, and opportunistic (unreliable) transmissions for optimizing quality of control. Based on this model, the work of the second funding period is focused on the following goals: On the one hand, the complexity of the targeted networked control systems is increased to cover a larger set of control systems. For instance, non-linear systems and systems consisting of groups with multiple control applications sharing communication resources are considered. On the other hand, methods for controller replication are investigated to increase the robustness of the networked control system.