Tracking A Nonlinear System Via A Communication Network

Abstract

In a Networked Control System (NCS), sensors, controller and actuator are connected to the communication network as nodes instead of hardwiring them with point-to-point connection. This system setup has the advantages of low cost, flexibility, less wiring, and the system performance can be remotely controlled from a long distance. Besides a lot of a advantages, a NCS has also shortcomings, induced by the network components, like time delays and data packet loss. Network delays degrade the NCS control performance and destabilize the system. In this thesis, a new tracking control methodology for a special case of nonlinear control systems with time delays induced by inserting the communication network into the forward control loop is presented, which is generated from the use of gain scheduling technique. In this methodology, the design of a gain scheduled tracking controller is based on the use of output feedback control, which also includes designing an estimator for compensating the induced time delays. This methodology is applied to an application of nonlinear systems, that is magnetic ball levitation CE152 and the results showed that the designed controller achieved the desired performance as well as treating the effect of time delays induced by the network.