Predictive control of teleoperated constrained systems with unbounded communication delays

We present a control technique which allows the teleoperation of systems subject to input/state constraints through transmission channels with unbounded time-delays, such as Internet TCP/IP connections. The main idea is based on the fact that predictive controllers provide, as a by-product, command sequences which can be executed as emergency maneuvers whenever the communication channel is broken by excessive time-delays. We show how this idea can be exploited by equipping the predictive controller with some additional control logic which enables the synchronization between plant, predictive controller, and human operator.