The influence of event-based sampling techniques on data transmission and control performance

Event-based systems are becoming increasingly commonplace, particularly for distributed real-time sensing and control. Furthermore, remote monitoring and control through data-communication networks are very popular for process supervision and control. The usage of networks provide many well-known benefits, but it also presents some limitations in the amount of transmitted data. This fact is especially visible in Wireless Sensor Network (WSN), where the bandwidth of communication channel is limited and typically all nodes are battery powered. Event-based sampling techniques appear as a some possible solution to face this problem allowing considerably saving network resources and reducing the power consumption. On the other hand, the control system performance is highly affected due to the event-based sampling techniques, being necessary to analyze and study a compromise between control quality and reduction in the control signal commutations. This paper presents all these ideas applied to the greenhouse climate control problem.