Feasibility analysis for networked control systems by simulation in Modelica

Technological advancements in communication and embedded computing lead to the increasing application of decentralized structures in automation and control. The decentralization adds new behavior in the form of - often non-deterministic - delays to the resulting networked control systems (NCS). To analyze a closed loop control system including network communication, simulation is a viable approach. In this work a library for the simulation of controller and network hardware to be used in combination with process models in closed loop is presented. The library is implemented in the Modelica language. To allow easy application a structure conserving component based modeling approach is followed. The applicability is shown by analyzing the performance of a robotics control system where communication is realized alternatively with Ethernet and CAN bus.