Decentralized Event-Triggered Control Over Wireless Sensor/Actuator Networks

TLDR

Event‑triggered control replaces periodic execution by recomputing control signals only when a state condition is violated, thereby reducing transmissions and appealing for sensor/actuator networks. The paper proposes a decentralized event‑triggered implementation of centralized nonlinear controllers for sensor/actuator networks. By triggering control updates only upon state violations, the approach cuts network traffic and battery usage in wireless sensor nodes.

Abstract

Event-triggered control has been recently proposed as an alternative to the more traditional periodic execution of control tasks. In a typical event-triggered implementation, the control signals are kept constant until the violation of a condition on the state of the plant triggers the recomputation of the control signals. The possibility of reducing the number of recomputations, and thus of transmissions, while guaranteeing desired levels of control performance, makes event-triggered control very appealing in the context of sensor/actuator networks. In particular, by reducing the network traffic we also reduce the energy expenditures of battery powered wireless sensor nodes. In this paper we present a decentralized event-triggered implementation, over sensor/actuator networks, of centralized nonlinear controllers.