Design of hierarchical control systems with communication constraints

A procedure for designing hierarchical control systems with constraints on communication between control units is presented, and a simple example is used to illustrate the procedure. The design procedure is constructed to avoid undesirable behavior, such as one control unit signaling another through the plant. Causal rate-distortion theory results are used to determine the best design for communication channels between controllers and to determine the trade-off between channel capacity and control performance.