Scalable Decentralized Control over Ad Hoc Sensor Actuator Networks

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Title: Scalable Decentralized Control over Ad Hoc Sensor-Actuator NetworksSummary: This project studies the extent to which ad hoc networks of sensors and actuatorsmay be used to implement large-scale feedback control systems. Dense ad hoc networks suffer fromsignificant capacity limitations that suggest scalability may only be achieved if we restrict ourselvesto localized network traffic patterns. Moreover, such sensor-actuator networks have a large numberof clients sharing the same communication channel, so that contention between different clients willgreatly reduce the amount of data that can be streamed between sensors and actuators. Maintain-ing specified levels of overall control system performance in such a non-deterministic environment isextremely challenging and we feel that it can only be achieved if we adopt a cross-layer approach inwhich application (i.e., control) algorithms and networking protocols are intimately aware of eachothers capabilities and limitations. This project investigates fundamental relationships betweencontrol system performance and network quality-of-service (QoS). The project will use these rela-tionships to develop decentralized control algorithms and supporting network middleware servicesthat can guarantee application (control) performance over extremely large ad hoc sensor-actuatornetworks. The intellectual merit of the proposed work lies in its precise characterization of theway in which network middleware impacts control system performance. The project will demon-strate these algorithms and services on a physical testbed in which a spatially-distributed physicalplant is controlled in a decentralized manner over an ad hoc radio (RF) network of embeddedprocessors.The project's broader impacts will be felt through its impact on undergraduate education atNotre Dame as well as through on-going collaborations with civil, environmental, and mechanicalengineering researchers both in and out of Notre Dame. In particular, the project's proposed testbedwill be tied to undergraduate courses in electrical and mechanical engineering, thereby providingstudents with a novel opportunity to contribute to an on-going research program. Moreover weare collaborating with civil/environmental engineers to develop sensor-actuator networks that canaddress the combined-sewer overfow (CSO) problem faced by a number of municipalities acrossthe Midwest and Eastern United States. The results from this project have the potential to reduceanticipated costs associated with solving the CSO problem. The results from this project willtherefore have a broad societal impact extending well beyond the immediate project objectives.