Innovations-based priority assignment for control over CAN-like networks

We present an innovations-based prioritization mechanism to efficiently use network resources for data gathering, without compromising the real-time decision making capability of the control systems. In the envisioned protocol, each sensor assigns the Value of Information (VoI) contained in its current observations for the network as the priority. Tournaments are used to compare priorities and assign transmission slots, like in the CAN bus protocol. By using a rollout strategy, we derive feasible algorithms for computing the VoI-based priorities for the case of coupled and decoupled systems. In the case of decoupled systems, performance guarantees with regard to the control cost of the VoI-based strategy are identified. We illustrate the efficiency of the proposed approach on a platooning example in which the vehicles receive measurements from multiple sensors.