Practical Stability of Networked Control Systems under Uncertainty

这个项目解决了在现实世界中的网络系统的控制理论和实践之间的差距。在许多实际系统中，如智能城市中的自动驾驶汽车或辅助驾驶，来自传感器的物理输入被转换为数字形式，并传送给控制器，控制器根据当前状态估计，在系统演化的任何给定时间确定要采取的适当行动。在这些系统中的主要问题之一是如何确保正确执行的控制任务，尽管存在于控制回路中的几个不确定性。例如，系统可能受到随机干扰，并且通信信道可能受到随机错误或延迟的影响。尽管存在这些随机事件，但要求系统保持高水平的可靠性。这通常是一个严格的要求，因为它直接关系到人类的安全。为了成功地将理论与实践相结合，该项目旨在对系统可以提供的概率保证进行实际相关的分析;并根据给定操作条件下的概率安全设计系统。该研究的影响超出了控制和通信领域，引入了新的数学方法和设计工具。在奠定理论基础时，我们期望在信息论、控制论和实时系统之间建立新的、协同的联系。该提案中倡导的框架将有利于几个需要可验证设计的应用领域，这些设计具有可证明的正确性能保证，例如自主交通，智能电力系统和机器人技术。拟议的研究还将通过本科生参与、研究生指导和课程开发以及外联活动来影响新一代学生的培训。该项目的目标如下：（一）开发一个理论适合于实际相关的系统保证的描述;（二）开发系统设计方法，包括概率安全给定的操作条件;（三）提供发展战略，旨在满足操作条件，保证概率安全。该理论将包括确定性以及随机分析，时间触发和事件触发设计。它还将考虑隐含在通信事件的定时中的信息以及在事件触发控制的上下文中在工厂建模中出现的非线性。该项目的结果将通过软件模拟，硬件在环验证以及UCSD AeroDrome的空中和地面车辆团队的实验进行测试。核心应用领域包括交通和智能城市的自主性、高度动态系统、计算、通信和控制的融合、环境和基础设施监测以及智能电力系统。该建议的智力价值是提供良好的可靠性保证网络控制系统的通信和控制方面的系统在一个集成的方式处理的操作。所提出的理论将考虑稳定性的概念，从实用的角度来看是有吸引力的。根据通信信道和系统干扰的类型，我们的结果将从确定性，强概率，或弱概率保证成功实现控制目标的能力。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

This project addresses the gap between theory and practice in the control of networked systems in real-world settings. In many practical systems, like autonomous vehicles or assisted driving in smart cities, physical inputs from sensors are converted into digital form and communicated to a controller that determines the appropriate action to take, at any given time of the system evolution, based on the current estimate of the state. One of the main issues in these systems is how to ensure the correct execution of the control task, despite several uncertainties that are present in the control loop. For example, the system can be subject to random disturbances, and the communication channel can be affected by random errors or delays. Despite these stochastic events, it is required that the system maintains a high level of reliability. This is often a stringent requirement since it is directly related to human safety. To successfully merge theory with practice, the project aims at providing a practically relevant analysis of the probabilistic guarantees that the system can provide; and at designing systems based on probabilistic safety for given operating conditions. The study has implications beyond the field of control and communications, in terms of the introduction of new mathematical methods and design tools. In laying a theoretical foundation, we expect to draw novel, synergistic connections between information theory, control theory, and real-time systems. The framework advocated in this proposal will benefit several application domains in need of verifiable designs with provably correct guarantees on performance, such as autonomous transportation, smart power systems, and robotics. The proposed research will also impact the training of a new generation of students through undergraduate student involvement, graduate mentoring and curriculum development, and outreach activities. The goals of the project are as follows: (i) develop a theory suitable to a practically relevant description of system guarantees; (ii) develop system design approaches that embrace probabilistic safety for the given operating conditions; (iii) provide development strategies aimed at satisfying the operating conditions that guarantee probabilistic safety. The theory will include deterministic as well as stochastic analysis, time triggering and event-triggering designs. It will also account for the information implicit in the timing of the communication events and for nonlinearities arising in the plant modeling in the context of event-triggering control. The results of the project will be tested via software simulations, hardware-in-the-loop validation, and experiments on a team of aerial and ground vehicles at the UCSD AeroDrome. Core application areas include autonomy of transportation and smart cities, highly dynamical systems, convergence of computation, communication, and control, environment and infrastructure monitoring, and smart power systems. The intellectual merit of the proposal is to provide sound reliability guarantees on the operation of networked control systems where communication and control aspects system are treated in an integrated fashion. The proposed theory will consider notions of stability that are attractive from a practical perspective. Depending on the type of communication channel and system disturbances, our results will range from deterministic, to strong probabilistic, or weak probabilistic guarantees on the ability to successfully achieve the control objective.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.