Methodology and tools for controller-networking codesign in WirelessHART

This paper describes a methodology for controller and communication scheduling co-design in control systems operating over wirelessHART networks. Data collection and dissemination operations are identified and scheduled to minimize the nominal communication latency. Techniques for improving the reliability of the network when link transmissions are unreliable are discussed, and a Markov-chain model for computing the latency distribution of data collection operations for a given schedule is proposed. The resulting latency models allow to represent the networked control loop as a jump-linear system, whose performance can be analyzed using techniques from stochastic control. We demonstrate how this framework can be used to co-design a networked LQG controller for a five-by-five MIMO control loop.