Control and Sensing under Limited Information

到目前为止，在自动控制中缺少的一个关键组成部分是对控制目标和信息约束之间的耦合的良好理解。如果我们将整个闭环控制系统视为信息处理模块的网络，则由于传感器能力、计算资源和通信能力的限制，实际系统的不同组件之间的信息传输速率永远不会是无限的。高性能网络化嵌入式系统和自主机器人的日益增长的兴趣提出了极大的需求，一个新的控制理论，可以考虑到信息约束。该项目的主要目标是在有限信息的情况下发展一种全面的基于性能的控制理论。该项目的主要贡献将是解决控制设备和传感器的现实非线性模型（例如，这些动机基于视觉的控制），并考虑控制和观测器的设计，提供保证的性能和鲁棒性。智力优点：新的控制理论将揭示基本的能力和限制控制理论技术在约束信息的情况下，从而使更好地关注系统和控制理论在解决当今的现实世界中的问题的作用。更具体地说，我们将验证新的理论成果，在自主机器人的基于视觉的控制研究。我们相信，拟议项目的遗产将是数学控制理论与具有重大实际意义的工程问题的成功结合。更广泛的影响：拟议的研究将通过进一步改进最近开发的混合动力系统和控制以及计算机视觉课程，以及通过引入新课程的非线性控制设计和混合模型和系统的识别。提案人将确保广泛的结果传播和推广，通过邀请讲座，辅导研讨会，基于网络的材料，并根据伊利诺伊大学的政策，具有不同地理和种族背景的学生的参与。

One crucial component that has been missing in automatic control so far is a good understanding of the coupling between control objectives and information constraints. If we view an overall closed-loop control system as a network of information-processing modules, the rate of information transfer between different components of the system in reality is never unlimited, due to constraints on the sensor capability, computational resources, and communication capacity. The increasing interest in high-performance networked embedded systems and autonomous robots puts in great demand a new control theory that can take information constraints into account. The primary goal of the proposed project is the development of a comprehensive performance-based theory of control with limited information. The main contribution of the project will be to address realistic nonlinear models for the control plants and sensors (e.g., those motivated by vision-based control) and to consider control and observer designs that provide guaranteed performance and robustness.Intellectual Merits:The new control theory will reveal fundamental capabilities and limitations of control-theoretic techniques in the constrained information context, thus bringing into better focus the role of systems and control theory in solving today's real-world problems. More specifically, we will verify the new theoretical results in the study of vision-based control of autonomous robots. We believe that the legacy of the proposed project will be a successful marriage of the mathematical control theory with an engineering problem of great practical importance.Broader Impacts: The proposed research will be naturally integrated with education through further improvement of recently developed courses on hybrid systems and control and computer vision, as well as through introduction of new courses on nonlinear control design and identification of hybrid models and systems. The proposers will ensure wide result dissemination and outreach through invited lectures, tutorial workshops, web-based materials, and involvement of students with diverse geographic and ethnic backgrounds in accordance with the policies of the University of Illinois.