Predictor-based control of time-delay systems: a survey

Abstract

With the developments of wireless data communication and network technology, time-delays are widely found in nowadays' control systems, e.g. networked control systems, mobile robot systems, and multi-agent systems. Predictor-based control is an effective method dealing with long time-delays because it can generally lead to a delay-free closed-loop system by introducing a prediction for future states. Recently, various predictor-based control methods have been developed for numerous control systems subject to different time-delays, which motivates this survey. This paper presents a comprehensive review of the up-to-date results on the predictor-based control of time-delay systems. Firstly, the ordinary differential equation-based approaches for designing and analysing predictor-based controllers are summarised. Secondly, one reports an alternative method of predictor-based control, in which the systems/controllers are understood in the sense of partial differential equations. Next, several integration-free predictor-based controllers are introduced: by abandoning the infinite-dimensional integral terms, the control laws become easier to realise in practice. Hereafter, the paper discusses the real-time implementations and the practical applications of predictor-based control methods to several particular control systems. Finally, this paper suggests some new trends of predictor-based control for future research.

Keywords:

• Time-delay systems
• predictor-based control
• networked control systems
• multi-agent systems
• wireless robotic systems

Data availability statement

The authors confirm that data and materials that support the results or analyses presented in this paper are freely available upon request.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).