Experiments for dynamic resource allocation, scheduling, and control: new challenges from information technology-enabled feedback control

To help educators design laboratories that support the study of information technology-enabled distributed feedback control, several inexpensive experiments for studying the design and implementation of distributed and networked dynamic resource allocation, scheduling, and control strategies are described. In each case, an overview of the experimental apparatus and the challenges involved were presented. For three of the testbeds, the experimental results for distributed decision-making strategies were shown. The ideas for experiment redesign highlight the existence of tradeoffs among experimental apparatus design, the choice of hardware and software, and research and educational objectives.