Decentralized observer-based control via networked communication

This paper provides one of the first approaches to the design of decentralized observer-based output-feedback controllers for linear plants where the controllers, sensors and actuators are connected via a shared communication network subject to time-varying transmission intervals and delays. Due to the communication medium being shared, it is impossible to transmit all control commands and measurement data simultaneously. As a consequence, a protocol is needed to orchestrate what data is sent over the network at each transmission instant. To effectively deal with the shared communication medium using observer-based controllers, we adopt a switched observer structure that switches based on the available measured outputs and a switched controller structure that switches based on available control inputs at each transmission time. By taking a discrete-time switched linear system perspective, we are able to derive a general model that captures all these networked and decentralized control aspects. The proposed synthesis method is based on decomposing the closed-loop model into a multi-gain switched static output-feedback form. This decomposition allows for the formulation of linear matrix inequality based synthesis conditions which, if satisfied, provide stabilizing observer-based controllers, which are both decentralized and robust to network effects. A numerical example illustrates the strengths as well as the limitations of the developed theory.