New developments and control strategies for the application of networked control systems

Abstract

This research project presents a proposal for continuing the work on Networked Control System (NCS) with the objective of proposing new developments and control strategies which enable the application of this technology in different areas. NCSs rae distributed control systems in which the sensors, actuators and controllers are physically separated and connected through an industrial communication network. NCSs represent the evolution of networked control architectures providing greater modularity and control decentralization, ease of maintenance and diagnosis and lower cost, and its application has been widely researched in several areas such as manufacturing and processes, robotics, agriculture, transportation and power systems. The challenge in the development of NCSs is to overcome the effects of the nonlinearities and restrictions imposed by the communication network on the closed loop that impact its performance and stability. Among these effects are mainly the information lost on the network, the variable network delays and the communication constraints caused by limited bandwidth and network sharing with other devices. Aiming to consolidate the research about NCSs in the Brazilian academia, this research goals to develop solutions focused on adaptability and interoperability which enable the application of NCSs with well-known industrial networks such as CAN and ZigBee. To support this development, control techniques such as model based, multi-rate and for time delay systems are investigated. The expected results include identifying the challenges to be overcome for the application of wireless networks in NCSs, developing simple solutions of hardware and software to foment the implementation of NCSs and proposing innovative design techniques and control strategies which guarantee performance and stability requirements and provide greater robustness and reliability to the NCSs operation. (AU)