Wireless control system design and co-simulation

This paper discusses the communication and control co-design and co-simulation of wireless networked control systems. The interactions between the network and the control system are considered, and general networking and control co-design solutions are proposed for wireless control applications. The PiccSIM simulator for wireless control system simulation is used to study the effects of specific network protocol and control algorithms in practice. Packet loss models based on measurements of real industrial radio environments are incorporated into the simulator. This allows the realistic evaluation of the suitability of the network protocols for wireless control applications. A network quality of service measure is introduced, which gives a direct relationship between the network and control performances. Two simulation cases show the capabilities of PiccSIM for wireless control application research and development, where the co-design issues and solutions are demonstrated in detail.