Optimal Integrated Control and Scheduling of Systems with Communication Constraints

This paper addresses the problem of the optimal control and scheduling of Networked Control Systems over limited bandwidth time-slotted networks. Multivariable linear systems subject to communication constraints are modeled in the Mixed Logical Dynamical (MLD) framework. The translation of the MLD model into the Mixed Integer Quadratic Programming (MIQP) formulation is described. This formulation allows the solving of the optimal control and scheduling problem using efficient branch and bound algorithms. Advantages and drawbacks of on-line and off-line scheduling algorithms are discussed. Based on this discussion, an efficient on-line scheduling algorithm, which can be seen as a compromise, is presented and its performance is evaluated.