Performance limitations for networked control systems with plant uncertainty

Abstract

There has recently been significant interest in performance study for networked control systems with communication constraints. But the existing work mainly assumes that the plant has an exact model. The goal of this paper is to investigate the optimal tracking performance for networked control system in the presence of plant uncertainty. The plant under consideration is assumed to be non-minimum phase and unstable, while the two-parameter controller is employed and the integral square criterion is adopted to measure the tracking error. And we formulate the uncertainty by utilising stochastic embedding. The explicit expression of the tracking performance has been obtained. The results show that the network communication noise and the model uncertainty, as well as the unstable poles and non-minimum phase zeros, can worsen the tracking performance.

Keywords:

• optimal tracking performance
• network communication noise
• model uncertainty
• two-parameter controller
• unstable poles
• non-minimum phase zeros

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the reviewers for their very helpful comments and suggestions, which have improved the presentation of this article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was partially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 61170031], [grant number 61272114], [grant number 61370039], [grant number 61373041]; the Doctoral Foundation of Ministry of Education of China [grant number 20130142130010].

Notes on contributors

Ming Chi

Ming Chi received the PhD degree in control theory and control engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Wuhan, China, in 2013. He is currently a lecturer in the College of Automation, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China. His research interests include networked control systems and multi-agent systems.

Zhi-Hong Guan

Zhi-Hong Guan received the PhD degree in automatic control theory and its application from the South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China, in 1994. He is currently a Huazhong leading professor in the College of Automation, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China. His research interests include complex systems and complex networks, impulsive and hybrid control systems, networked control systems, multi-agent systems and robot networks.

Xin-Ming Cheng

Xin-Ming Cheng received the PhD degree in control theory and control engineering from the Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China, in 2003. He is currently an associate professor in Central South University. His research interests include stability and control of impulsive dynamic systems, complex networks and multi-agent systems, control theory and application of networked systems.

Fu-Shun Yuan

Fu-Shun Yuan received the MS degree in mathematics from the Northwestern University, Xian, China, in 1990, and received the PhD degree in control theory and control engineering from the South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China, in 1993. He is a director and full professor of the School of Mathematics and Statistics in Anyang Normal University, Anyang, China. He was named the Leader in Education Science and Technology by the Education Department of Henan Province in 2005. He was awarded the title of the National Outstanding Teacher in 2007. His current research interests include variable structure control theory, networked control systems, stability and stabilisation of delay systems.