INtERCEDE: An algorithmic approach to networked control system design

Networked Control Systems (NCS) are distributed control systems where the sensor signals to the controllers and the control data to the actuators are enclosed in messages and sent over a communication network. On the one hand, the design of an NCS requires ensuring the stability of the control system and achieving system response that is as close as possible to that of an ideal system which demands network resources. On the other hand, these resources are limited and have to be allocated efficiently to accommodate for future system extensions as well as applications other than control purpose. Furthermore the NCS design parameters for the control system messages and the message transmission over the network are interdependent. In this paper, we propose “Integrated NCS Design (INtERCEDE: Integrated NEtwoRked Control systEm DEsign)” a novel algorithmic approach for the design of NCS which ensures the stability of the control system, brings system response to that of an ideal system as close as desired and conserves network bandwidth at the same time. The core of INtERCEDE is a bargaining game approach which iteratively calculates the message parameters and network service parameters. Our experimental results demonstrate the operation of INtERCEDE and how it computes the optimal design parameters for the example NCS.