Design of Networked Control Systems Using Passivity

Real-life cyber physical systems, such as automotive vehicles, building automation systems, and groups of unmanned vehicles are monitored and controlled by networked control systems (NCS). The overall system dynamics emerges from the interaction among physical dynamics, computational dynamics, and communication networks. Network uncertainties such as time-varying delay and packet loss cause significant challenges. This paper proposes a passive control architecture for designing NCS that are insensitive to network uncertainties. We describe the architecture for a system consisting of a robotic manipulator controlled by a digital controller over a wireless network and show that the system is stable even in the presence of time-varying delays. Experimental results demonstrate the advantages of the passivity-based architecture with respect to stability and performance and show that the system is insensitive to network uncertainties.