Robust Stabilization of a Class of Nonlinear Systems Controlled Over Communication Networks

The article deals with the stabilization of nonlinear systems in which the loop is closed over a lossy nonacknowledged communication network. Given a regional input-to-state (ISS) stabilizing state-feedback control law, designed without accounting for the network-induced delays, we propose a nonacknowledged communication policy that allows to deploy the above controller over the network without any modification, while preserving the regional ISS property. The time-varying delays and packet dropouts occurring on both the uplink and the downlink are compensated through a model-based prediction scheme and a packet-management policy based on time-stamping. The consistency of the prediction, which is a major issue in the context of nonlinear systems with an embedded networked controller, is guaranteed through the exploitation of a novel move-blocking strategy for computing the command sequence to be forwarded to the actuators.