Optimization and Systems Theory Seminar
Friday, September 14 2007, 11.00-12.00, Room 3721, Lindstedtsvägen 25


Luca Schenato, Univ of Padova, Italy
E-mail: schenato@dei.unipd.it

Some Results on Optimal Estimation and Control for Lossy Networked Control

The rapid convergence of sensing, computing and wireless communication technologies on cost effective, low power, miniature devices, is enabling a host of new applications. In particular, wireless sensor networks have the ability to inexpensively gather data over a network at a very fine temporal and spatial granularity. So far sensor networks have been employed for static monitoring applications, but their ability to process data in real-time could enable a number of new control applications. However, control applications running over these distributed networks have to deal with important issues such as communication delay, data loss, time-synchronization, power management, scaling, just to name a few.

In this talk I will describe some problems related the effect of packets loss and random delay on the design and performance of networked control. In particular, I will try to show that communication and control are tightly coupled and they cannot be addressed independently.
For example, where should we place my controller? near the sensors, near the actuators or somewhere in the middle? What is the impact of packet loss on the closed loop performance? Which features should communication protocols have to reduce performance degradation due to packet loss? If sensors and actuators are provided with computational resources, can we use them to improve performance? From a closed-loop performance perspective, is it better to have a protocols with small packet delay and high packet loss or protocols with low packet loss and longer delay? If actuators have no computational resources what should we do when a control packet is loss: use the previous control values (hold-input) or do nothing (zero-input)? These are some of the questions addressed in the presentation. I will propose some possible solutions and comment on their implications on the design of general networked control systems.


Calendar of seminars Last update: August 10, 2007 by Marie Lundin.