Control Systems Designed for Wireless Sensor and Actuator Networks

This paper presents a theoretical model of control and communication over wireless sensor and actuator networks (WSANs). We propose two control schemes, a centralized control scheme (CC) in which decisions are made based on global information, and a distributed control scheme (DC) that enables distributed actuators to make decisions locally. Because of global information, CC can obtain optimal control at each step. However, when that information is delivered over lossy wireless channels, it could become unstable. It is demonstrated by simulations that DC could also stabilize the control system analogously with the CC, though with more steps.