A multi-threaded communication architecture for networked control systems

Abstract

Advancement in communication technology has paved the way for geographically dislocating controllers from the plants they are controlling. Establishing a secure and reliable communication is an essential component to achieve robust control performance. Myriad network control schemes have been proposed but they are incapacitated due to a lack of reliable software paradigm. This highlights the need of a distributed system, which provides platform for smooth communication between a plant and its controller. In this work, we propose CASAPAC, which is a multi-threaded communication architecture designed to ensure reliable and in-order delivery of information between different modules of a network control system. Any control algorithm can be tested and employed over any network using CASAPAC. An adaptive fuzzy controller and a network based gain scheduled PI (Proportional Integral) controller have been tested on different networks using CASAPAC. In both cases, tests were carried out on a real plant of a coupled tank system. CASAPAC was able to handle all the communication efficiently in different scenarios and good control performance was achieved in both cases.