Stabilization of Networked Control Systems with Sparse Observer-Controller Networks

TL;DR

This paper develops stability conditions and a low-complexity algorithm for designing sparse observer-controller networks in linear time-invariant systems, enhancing decentralization and stability.

Contribution

It introduces a novel stability analysis and a sparse network design algorithm for networked control systems with arbitrary topology.

Findings

Stability conditions for networked control systems are derived.

A low-complexity algorithm for sparse network design is proposed.

Distributed observers improve system stability.

Abstract

In this paper we provide a set of stability conditions for linear time-invariant networked control systems with arbitrary topology, using a Lyapunov direct approach. We then use these stability conditions to provide a novel low-complexity algorithm for the design of a sparse observer-based control network. We employ distributed observers by employing the output of other nodes to improve the stability of each observer dynamics. To avoid unbounded growth of controller and observer gains, we impose bounds on their norms. The effects of relaxation of these bounds is discussed when trying to find the complete decentralization conditions.