Control with Intermittent Sensor Measurements: A New Look at Feedback Control

In many control systems, including networked control systems, feedback information is not necessarily continuous or instantaneous, but intermittent, where the loop is closed for finite time intervals. Intermittent feedback is not uncommon in applications, but it has not been adequately studied in control theory. The aim of this work is to explore theoretically the advantages (and disadvantages) of intermittent feedback. In this paper, we apply the concept of Intermittent Feedback to a class of networked control systems known as Model-Based Networked Control Systems (MB-NCS). We first introduce the basic architecture for model-based control with intermittent feedback, then address the cases with output feedback (through the use of a state observer) and with delays in the network, providing a full description of the state response of the system, as well as a necessary and sufficient condition for stability in each case. Extensions of our results to cases with nonlinear plants are also presented. Finally, we propose future research directions.