Networked control system
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A networked control system (NCS) is a control system wherein the control loops are closed through a communication network. The defining feature of an NCS is that control and feedback signals are exchanged among the system's components in the form of information packages through a network.
A networked control system (NCS) is a control system wherein the control loops are closed through a communication network. The defining feature of an NCS is that control and feedback signals are exchanged among the system's components in the form of information packages through a network.
Types of communication networks
Fieldbuses, e.g. CAN, LON etc. IP/Ethernet Wireless networks, e.g. Bluetooth, Zigbee, and Z-Wave. The term wireless networked control system (WNCS) is often used in this connection.
Problems and solutions
Advent and development of the Internet combined with the advantages provided by NCS attracted the interest of researchers around the globe. Along with the advantages, several challenges also emerged giving rise to many important research topics. New control strategies, kinematics of the actuators in the systems, reliability and security of communications, bandwidth allocation, development of data communication protocols, corresponding fault detection and fault tolerant control strategies, real-time information collection and efficient processing of sensors data are some of the relative topics studied in depth. The insertion of the communication network in the feedback control loop makes the analysis and design of an NCS complex, since it imposes additional time delays in control loops or possibility of packages loss. Depending on the application, time-delays could impose severe degradation on the system performance. To alleviate the time-delay effect, Y. Tipsuwan and M-Y. Chow, in ADAC Lab at North Carolina State University, proposed the gain scheduler middleware (GSM) methodology and applied it in iSpace. S. Munir and W.J. Book (Georgia Institute of Technology) used a Smith predictor, a Kalman filter and an energy regulator to perform teleoperation through the Internet. K.C. Lee, S. Lee and H.H. Lee used a genetic algorithm to design a controller used in a NCS. Many other researchers provided solutions using concepts from several control areas such as robust control, optimal stochastic control, model predictive control, fuzzy logic etc. A most critical and important issue surrounding the design of distributed NCSs with the successively increasing complexity is to meet the requirements on system reliability and dependability, while guaranteeing a high system performance over a wide operating range. This makes network based fault detection and diagnosis techniques, which are essential to monitor the system performance, receive more and more attention.
References
External links
Advanced Diagnosis Automation and Control Lab (NCSU) Co-design Framework to Integrate Communication, Control, Computation and Energy Management in Networked Control Systems (FeedNetback Project)
Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1328387148 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.