Optimal stopping for event-triggered sensing and actuation

Novel event-triggered sensing and actuation strategies are presented for networked control systems with limited communication resources. Two architectures are considered: one with the controller co-located with the sensor and one with the control co-located with the actuator. A stochastic control problem with an optimal stopping rule is shown to capture two interesting instances of these architectures. The solution of the problem leads to a parametrization of the control alphabet as piecewise constant commands. The execution of the control commands is triggered by stopping rules for the sensor. In simple situations, it is possible to analytically derive the optimal controller. Examples illustrate how the new event-based control and sensing strategies outperform conventional time-triggered schemes.