This project pursues a four-year research and education plan to develop a unified framework for distributed control with limited and potentially disrupted communication. This framework utilizes hybrid systems as the modeling tool of choice to combine physical continuous systems, event-based protocols, and real-time software. The project is focused on the specific needs of distributed control over communication networks. The algorithms developed are tested on two testbeds available at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB): the ZEUS Surgical Robotic System and a wireless mobile robotic system.
The research pursues significant extensions of hybrid systems theory to address issues specific to distributed control and communication. In particular, the following fundamental issues are investigated: Development of a theory for infinite-dimensional and functional hybrid systems, which is needed to deal with (possibly varying) communication and computation delays. Extension of hybrid systems theory to a stochastic setting, capable of capturing noise, uncertainty and randomization present in most physical systems and in communication/scheduling protocols. Application to two existing test-beds of these extensions of hybrid systems theory, in order to understand the practical needs of distributed control over communication networks.
Broader impacts resulting from the project
This project aims at producing rigorous tools to analyze and design distributed control systems that are fully integrated with the communication networks that support them. The emphasis is in the design of systems that are provably correct by construction, minimizing the need for brute force a posteriori validation. The ultimate goal of this research is the design of control systems that are reliable in a realistic (thus not perfect) networked world.
The tools and technologies developed are applied to two testbeds: the ZEUS Surgical Robotic System and a wireless mobile robotic system based on ActivMedia's PIONEER-2 wheeled robot. These testbeds provide the practical validation of the fundamental research as well as demonstrate the role of hybrid systems as an enabling technology to areas such as medicine and biology; scientific and industrial sensing and control; and the support of experimental apparatus for science.
This project has a strong educational component. Aside from providing funding for students pursuing PhD programs, new courses are added to UCSB's curriculum in the area of hybrid control systems. These courses are interdisciplinary, aimed at students in the areas of control, communications, signal processing, mechanical, and chemical engineering. The intended audience consists of graduate students early in their MS and PhD programs or senior undergraduate students. To this effect (and to facilitate the enrollment of students in different departments) the courses are mostly self-contained with minimal prerequisites. Undergraduate education is specifically addressed through curricular changes to increase awareness towards hybrid dynamics as well as the development of experiments for the College of Engineering Interdisciplinary Control Engineering Laboratory (ICE Lab). By exposing the students to research, it is expected to enhance the transition to industry of the technologies developed and encourage students to develop the rigorous and analytical thinking required for success in scientific research and also in a professional career in electrical engineering.
All the results, including papers, reports, and software are available freely to the research community through the world-wide-web. The course materials (including lecture notes, homeworks, laboratory materials, etc.) are also freely available to the academic community.
