Arbitrated Network Control Systems

Arbitration is inevitable in any embedded system where multiple applications have to be serviced using shared computational and communication resources. Our research investigations pertain to the analysis and synthesis of Arbitrated Network Control Systems (ANCS) that are capable of obtaining high control performance with limited consumption of resources. Main features of the ANCS include (i) hierarchy and (ii) multi-modality, both of which are necessary components in the design of a DES where advanced controllers need to be implemented. An overview of the ANCS can be found here. Highlights of recent results are listed below.

General Timing Analysis and Schedulability of Multiple Applications with Mixed Priority

Hybrid communication protocols such as FlexRay are often used in DES. We propose a co-design that uses information from closed-loop responses to determine an efficient resource utilization for control systems under hybrid communication protocols.

  • Used multi-mode control structure
  • Analyzed systems with non-monotonic behavior
  • Leads to a less conservative schedulability analysis.

TT ET tdw.png

Simulation using Truetime + Simulink for 6 non-monotonic control applications:

  • Our approach: 3 slots, Monotonic upper-bound: 5 slots
  • Reduced number of TT slots compared to those based on monotonic upper-bound