Control with a random access protocol and packet dropouts

Abstract

This paper investigates networked control systems whose actuators communicate with the controller via a limited number of unreliable channels. The access to the channels is decided by a so-called group random access protocol, which is modelled as a binary Markov sequence. Data packet dropouts in the channels are modelled as independent Bernoulli processes. For such systems, a systematic characterisation for controller synthesis is established and stated in terms of the transition probabilities of the Markov protocol and the packet dropout probabilities. The results are illustrated via a numerical example.

Keywords:

• networked control systems
• medium access constraint
• packet dropout
• exponential stability

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the referees and the editors for their constructive comments to improve the quality of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 61273107], [grant number 61174060]; the Dalian Leading Talent Project, Dalian, China [grant number 2012Z0036]; the Fundamental Research Funds for Central Universities, China [grant number 3132013334].

Notes on contributors

Liyuan Wang

Liyuan Wang was born in Dalian, China in 1987. She received her BS degree in Automation, and the MS degree in Control Theory and Control Engineering from Dalian Maritime University, China in 2010 and 2012, respectively. She is currently working towards a PhD degree in the School of Control Science and Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, China. Her research interests include networked control system and stochastic control.

Ge Guo

Prof Ge Guo received the BS and PhD degrees in Automatic Instrument and Equipment and in Control Theory and Control Engineering, respectively, from Northeastern University, Shenyang in 1994 and 1998.He joined Lanzhou University of Technology (LUT), China in 1999, where he was the associate professor and the director of the Institute of Intelligent Control and Robots and the dean of the Department of Electric Engineering from 2000 to 2004. From September to November 2003, he was a visiting research fellow with the Department of Automation, Shanghai Jiaotong University, China. Then, as a senior visiting researcher, he was with the Department of Automation, Tsinghua University, from November 2003 to December 2004. He had been the Professor in LUT from July 2004 to May 2005. He is currently the Professor in Dalian University of Technology, China. He also had a visiting research position in the Department of Information Engineering, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, from September to December, 2009. His research interests include networked control system theory, process control, vehicular cooperative control and mobile robot control. He has published over 100 journal papers within these areas.Dr Guo is the Managing Editor of International Journal of Systems, Control and Communications. He was the honouree of the New Century Excellent Talents in University, Ministry of Education, China, in 2004, and was the nominee of Gansu Top Ten Excellent Youths in 2005 from Gansu Province, China. He was also the co-recipient of the Outstanding Science and Technology Development Awards, both from Liaoning Provincial Government in 2007, and from Gansu Provincial Government, China in 2003 and 2007. In 2011, he was the honouree of Dalian Leading Talent, in Dalian, and Qian Jiang Scholar Professor in Hangzhou, China.