Decentralized control and communication

In this paper, the past and current issues involved in the design of decentralized networked control systems are reviewed. The basic models of interconnected systems described as continuous-time linear time-invariant systems in the time domain serve as a framework for the inclusion of communication channels in the decentralized feedback loop. The I/O-oriented models and the interaction oriented models with disjoint subsystems and interactions are distinguished. The overview is focused on packet dropouts, transmission delays, and quantization effects which are included in the time-driven design of feedback loop components. Single- and multiple-packet transmissions are considered in this contents. The design of decentralized state feedback gain matrices with delayed feedback uses the methodology of sampled-data feedback design for continuous-time systems, while the decentralized H-infinity quantizer design is based on the static output controller. The Liapunov stability approach results in computationally efficient decentralized control design strategies described by using linear matrix inequalities. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.