CAN-based Platform for the Study and Experimentation on Networked Control Systems (NCS)

Abstract

Networked control systems (NCS) are a recent trend in the research of distributed control systems with fieldbus networks such as CAN (Controller Network Area). This new approach differs from the traditional fieldbus systems in that the controller and the plant are physically separated and connected through an industrial network. Studies have been made to evaluate characteristics which are inherent to NCS design such as messages sampling time, information lost on the network and network delays between the sensors, actuators and controllers of the control system that can degrade its performance and destabilize the NCS. With the purpose of facilitating the research and highlighting the fundamental concepts in the area of NCS, a CAN-based platform has been developed. Focused on helping the investigation and experimentation on NCS on graduate courses, the platform can be used to perform tasks for NCS such as analysis, modeling, simulation and control. The architecture proposed for the platform is highly flexible allowing experiments to be conducted for several platform configurations, with different design parameters and controller algorithms. This paper describes our approach to designing this CAN-based NCS platform focusing on the hardware and software implementations and presenting the opportunities and benefits of its use to NCS. Experiments done with the platform confirm its functionality and effectiveness for NCS applications with the CAN protocol.