Multirate Control in Internet-Based Control Systems

One of the major challenges in Internet-based control systems is how to overcome the Internet transmission delay. In this paper, we investigate the potential of using the multirate control scheme and the time-delay compensation to overcome the Internet transmission delay. A two-level hierarchy is used for the Internet-based control systems. At the lower level, a local controller is implemented to control the plant at a higher frequency. At the higher level, a remote controller is employed to remotely regulate the desirable set-point at a lower frequency for the local controller. A compensator located at the feedback channel is designed to overcome the time delay occurring in the transmission from the local site to a remote site. Another compensator in the feedforward channel is designed to compensate the time-delay occurring in the control action transmission. The simulation and experimental application results illustrate that the multirate control scheme with the time delay compensation offers a promising way to efficiently reduce the effect of Internet time delay on control performance