Closing the Control Loop in Intelligent Spaces Systems: Control Over Wireless Networks with a Packet Loss Perspective

Recently, there has been a significant increase in the number of systems composed of both sensors and actuators spatially scattered in the physical world connected via wireless networks. These systems can be integrated into geographically defined intelligent spaces (iSpaces) in order to perform tasks where simultaneous sensing and controlling is necessary. Our main concern here is finding a way to close control loops in such environments. We first considered the key factors in iSpace-based sensing and control including: timing, state estimation, and control over unreliable wireless networks from a systematic perspective. Then we focused on the formation of control loops when packet losses are involved and adopted an easily implemented and efficient method to deal with the unpredictable packet loss problem.