Output control with Internet-in-the-loop : An event-driven realization

This work is devoted to the remote feedback control of a linear process with "Internet in the loop". In such a networked control situation, variable and unpredictable delays arise, which may decrease the global performance or destabilize the system. Our aim is to obtain the best performance despite the variation of the network QoS (quality of service). The considered application is based on a Master-Slave structure. The Slave is a light mobile robot, that receives the control data and sends its sampled position via a UDP protocol. A Master computer realizes the remote control, based on a remote observer and a state feedback. The global strategy is without buffers. The packets are time-stamped so the Master detects the variable time delays (the network QoS). This information is used to adapt its observer/controller gains and guarantee the best possible performances. The design of this gain scheduling strategy relies on Lyapunov-Krasovskii functionals with an LMI optimization which guarantees the stability even with packet losses. Experimental results are provided.