Fast Feedback Control over Multi-hop Wireless Networks with Mode Changes and Stability Guarantees

TL;DR

This paper introduces a wireless control system enabling fast, stable feedback over multi-hop low-power networks with mode changes, achieving update intervals of 20-50 ms, crucial for real-time cyber-physical applications.

Contribution

It presents a novel wireless embedded system supporting mode changes and a control design that guarantees stability despite network imperfections and mode transitions.

Findings

Achieved feedback control at 20-50 ms intervals over multi-hop wireless networks.

Demonstrated stability guarantees for linear time-invariant systems with mode changes.

Validated system performance through experiments on a cyber-physical testbed.

Abstract

Closing feedback loops fast and over long distances is key to emerging cyber-physical applications; for example, robot motion control and swarm coordination require update intervals of tens of milliseconds. Low-power wireless communication technology is preferred for its low cost, small form factor, and flexibility, especially if the devices support multi-hop communication. Thus far, however, feedback control over multi-hop low-power wireless networks has only been demonstrated for update intervals on the order of seconds. To fill this gap, this paper presents a wireless embedded system that supports dynamic mode changes and tames imperfections impairing control performance (e.g., jitter and message loss), and a control design that exploits the essential properties of this system to provably guarantee closed-loop stability for physical processes with linear time-invariant dynamics in the presence of mode changes. Using experiments on a cyber-physical testbed with 20 wireless devices and multiple cart-pole systems, we are the first to demonstrate and evaluate feedback control and coordination with mode changes over multi-hop networks for update intervals of 20 to 50 milliseconds.