A Better Understanding of Event-Triggered Control from a CPS Perspective

In cybernetics filed, the benefit of event-triggered control reaches a consensus, but in practice the event-triggered control is hampered by the lack of a system theory. This paper provides a Cyber-Physical System (CPS) viewpoint of the relation between the controller and the physical plant to explain the event detection logic of the event-triggered control. The relation between the controller and the physical plant is considered as communication, and based on this communication process the controller and the physical plant exchange the information entropy and thermodynamic entropy. The physical plant generates the thermodynamic entropy and the controller provides the negative thermodynamic entropy based on the predictability of the mathematical model for the physical plant, where there is an entropy balance process between the thermodynamic entropy and information entropy. The adjustment of the controller cycle period is the process to adjust the entropy balance process, which implies the event detection logic.