Abstract

This paper investigates the stability analysis problem for a class of discrete-time networked control systems (NCSs) with random time delays and packet dropouts based on unified Markov jump model. The random time delays and packet dropouts existed in feedback communication link are modeled by two independent Markov chains; the resulting closed-loop system is described by a new Markovian jump linear system (MJLS) with Markov delays. Sufficient conditions of the stochastic stability for NCSs is obtained by constructing a novel Lyapunov functional, and the mode-dependent output feedback controller design method is presented based on linear matrix inequality (LMI) technique. A numerical example is given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

1. Introduction

Networked control systems (NCSs) are a type of closed-loop systems, in which the control loops are closed through communication networks. Compared with the traditional control systems, the use of the communication networks bring many advantages such as low cost, reduced weight, and simple installation and maintenance as well as high efficiency, flexibility, and reliability. Consequently, NCSs are applied in a broad range such as manufacturing plants, vehicles, aircrafts, spacecrafts, and remote surgery [1]. However, the communication networks in control loops also present some constraints such as time delays and packet dropouts due to limited bandwidth; quantization errors caused by hybrid nature of NCSs; variable sampling or transmission intervals due to multiple nodes; clock asynchronization among local and remote nodes; network security and safety and network security due to shared communication networks [2, 3]. It is generally known that any of these networked-induced communication imperfections and constraints can degrade closed-loop performance or, even worse, can harm closed-loop stability of NCSs. Therefore, it is important to know how these effects influence the stability properties. Recently, some important results of NCSs have been reported in the existing literature for instance, the discussions of packet dropouts [4–13], time delays [14–24], quantization [25], distributed synchronization [26], communication constraints [27], stability and controller design [28–33], both data quantizations and packet losses [34], both time delays and packet dropouts [35–44], and output feedback control problem [19, 45, 46].

In NCSs, time delays and packet dropouts are two important issues. To study these issues, many efforts have been made for NCSs with time delays [14–24] and packet dropouts [4–13]; for more details review, please refer to the literature therein. However, both time delays and packet dropouts exist in NCSs by the insertion of communication network in the feedback control loop. Xie and Xia [35] studied the robust fault tolerant controller design for NCSs with fast varying delay and packet dropout. Zhang and Yu [36] presented a switched system model to describe the NCSs with both delay and packet dropout, and the state feedback stabilizing controllers are designed by augmenting technique. Yu and Shi [37] addressed the two-mode-dependent state feedback controller design in NCSs with time delays and packet dropouts by augmenting the state variable approach. Dong et al. [38] studied the robust filtering problem for a class of uncertain nonlinear networked systems with both stochastic time-varying communication delays and packet dropouts. Jiang et al. [39] introduced the design of observer-based controller for NCSs with network induced delay and packet dropout. Li et al. [40] considered the observer-based fault detection problem for NCSs with long time delays and packet dropout by modeling the observers system as an uncertain switched system. Li et al. [41] studied the guaranteed const control of NCSs with the S-C packet dropouts and time delays. Wang and Yang [42] considered the problem of controller design for NCSs with time delay and packet dropout by applying the linear estimation-based time delay and packet dropout compensation method. Liu et al. [43] investigated the receding horizon control problem for a class NCSs with random delay and packet disordering by using the receding optimization principle. Qiu et al. [44] considered the state feedback control problem of NCS with both time delays and packet dropouts. In [19, 45, 46], the output feedback control problem of NCSs were investigated. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, up to now, little attention has been paid to the study of NCSs with random time delays and packet dropouts based on Markov jump unified model, which motivates our investigation.

In this paper, we address the unified model and stability analysis problem of NCSs with the random time delays and packet dropouts under a Markovian jump linear system (MJLS) framework. The feedback communication link random time delays and packet dropouts are modeled by two independent Markov chains, the resulting closed-loop system is modeled as a new MJLS with Markov delays. Then, we give stability analysis and output feedback controller design which are for discrete-time NCSs with both time delays and packet dropouts by the Lyapunov stability theory and linear matrix inequality method.

Notations. In the sequel, if not explicit, matrices are assumed to have appropriate dimensions. and denote, respectively, the dimensional Euclidean space and the set of all real matrices. The notations and are used to denote the positive and negative definite matrix, respectively. refers to a diagonal matrix with as its th diagonal entry. and denote the identity matrix and zero matrix with appropriate dimensions, respectively. The superscript denotes the transpose for vectors or matrices. denotes the mathematical expectation operator. The symbol denotes blocks that are readily inferred by symmetry.

2. Problem Description

The framework of the system over a network medium is depicted in Figure 1. Considering the same assumption in [14], the sensor, the controller, and the actuator are time-driven and are connected over a network medium. Under the assumption, it is known that the controller updates at the instant will always use the most recent data; otherwise, it will maintain the old data. In the NCS as Figure 1, network induced time delays and packet dropouts exist in the feedback communication link.

Figure 1 

The structure of the NCS with random delays and/or packet dropouts.

The discrete-time plant with a time-varying controller is described as where is the system state, is the control input, and is measurable output. , , and are known real constant matrices with appropriate dimensions. Random time delays and packet dropouts exist in link from sensor-to-controller (S-C), as shown in Figure 1. Here, represents the bounded random S-C time delays. One way to model the delays is using the finite state Markov chain as shown in [17–19]. The main advantage of the Markov model is that the dependencies between the delays are taken into account since the current time delays in real networks are usually related with the previous delays [17]. In this paper is modeled as a homogeneous Markov chain that take values in . denotes the network switches between the S-C. denotes the states of . When is in state , the packet is received successfully and the . Whereas when is in state , the packet is lost and the switch output is held at the previous value . The behavior of the S-C time delays and packet dropouts can be modeled as where

Considering the mode-dependent output feedback controller: where is the output feedback controller gain.

Let be the augmented state vector. Under the control (4), the closed-loop system of (1) is where , , , , and is the initial condition of .

In system (5), and are two independent discrete-time homogeneous Markov chains taking value in a finite set and with transition probabilities: where and for all , and For , , when in mode and , the in (5) take value and , respectively. and are known constant matrices of appropriate dimensions.

Remark 1. The closed-loop system (5) is a MJLS with two Markov chains, which describe the behavior of the S-C time delays and packet dropouts, respectively. This enables us to analyze and synthesize such NCSs by applying MJLS theory. Note that modeling the S-C time delays and packet dropouts simultaneously in NCSs based on unified Markov jump model has not been done in the literature.

Definition 2 (see [19]). The system in (5) is stochastically stable if for every finite , initial mode , and , there exists a finite such that the following holds:

3. Main Results

By applying a new Lyapunov functional, sufficient conditions for the stochastic stability and synthesis of the mode-dependent output feedback controller design for system (5) will be established in this section.

Theorem 3. For system (5), given random but bounded scalar , if for each mode , , there exist matrices , , , , , and such that the following matrix inequalities: where and is defined in (5).
Hold for all and ; then system (5) is stochastically stable.

Proof. For the closed-loop system (5), stochastic Lyapunov functional is constructed as follows: where and . In the following when and , we will write , , and as , , , and , respectively. We denote: Let . Then, along the solution of system (5) we have where is defined in Theorem 3.
We have Note that By combining (16) and (17), we have By Jensen’s inequality, we can get Similarly, we have By combining (19), (20), and (21), we have where is defined in Theorem 3.
By combining (14), (15), (18), and (22), we havewhere and are defined in Theorem 3.
By Schur complement and from (9), we have . Therefore, where denotes the minimal eigenvalue of and . From (24), it is seen that for any Furthermore By taking limit as , we have According to Definition 2, the closed-loop system (5) is stochastically stable. This completes the proof.