CPS: Synergy: Triggered Control of Cyber Physical Systems with Communication Channels Constraints

网络物理系统在越来越多具有高度社会和经济影响的领域扩展了人类的能力范围，如智能能源、智能交通、先进制造、卫生技术和环境。它们的成功运行需要通信、传感、驱动、控制和计算的紧密结合。然而，这些领域的进展并不总是得到很好的协调。例如，信息论研究如何压缩和保护在噪声信道上通信的信息，而在许多控制应用中，通信被抽象为瞬时和可靠的。信息论指出，长码是保护数据免受信道噪声影响的理想编码，但对于控制应用来说，长延迟是不可接受的。另一方面，触发控制采取一种机会主义的方法来决定何时应该采取行动使系统有效运行，但在很大程度上忽略了通信施加的约束。这一建议有助于开发一个控制和通信的通用理论框架，该框架融合了信息理论和触发控制，以设计用于现实世界场景中的网络物理系统运行的健壮和高效的协议。这种协同作用可以在上述社会环境中产生巨大影响，同时将使学生和研究人员的教育能够为这一新兴技术领域做好准备。该项目的目的是开发一种协同方法，以解决在通信限制和/或不可靠的通信渠道下的控制问题。状态触发控制和信息论控制的方法分别解决了问题的不同方面和一定程度上的互补性。因此，通过利用这两种方法的优势，可以设计出更好、更完整的问题解决方案。提供数据速率定理的信息论方法可用于丰富状态触发策略，以规定何时以及传输什么，以及量化通信信道的平均使用。类似地，通过在设计通信信道时将触发机制视为要在反馈环路中考虑的附加通信约束，可以丰富用于不可靠和随机通信信道的现有控制策略。

Cyber physical systems extend the range of human capabilities in an increasing number of areas with high societal and economic impact, such as smart energy, intelligent transportation, advanced manufacturing, health technology, and the environment. Their successful operation requires the close integration of communication, sensing, actuation, control, and computation. However, advances in these fields have not always been well coordinated. Information theory, for instance, studies how to compress and protect information communicating over noisy channels, while in many control applications communication is abstracted as being instantaneous and reliable. Information theory states that long codes are desirable to protect data against channel noise, but for control applications long delays are not acceptable. On the other hand, triggered control takes an opportunistic approach to decide when actions should be taken to make the system operate efficiently, but largely ignores the constraints imposed by communication. This proposal contributes to the development of a common theoretical framework for control and communication that merges information theory and triggered control to design robust and efficient protocols for the operation of cyber physical systems in real-world scenarios. Such a synergy can have a tremendous impact in the societal settings mentioned above, and at the same time will enable education of students and researchers to prepare themselves in this emerging area of technology.The aim of the project is to develop a synergistic approach to solving the problem of control under communication constraints and/or unreliable communication channels. The approaches to state-triggered control and information-theoretic control individually address different and somewhat complementary aspects of the problem. Therefore, by leveraging the strengths of the two approaches superior and more complete solutions to the problem may be designed. An information-theoretic approach to providing data rate theorems can be used to enrich state-triggered strategies to prescribe both when and what to transmit, as well as to quantify the average usage of the communication channel. Similarly, existing control strategies for unreliable and stochastic communication channels can be enriched by considering triggering mechanisms as additional communication constraints to be accounted for in the feedback loop while designing the communication channel.