A robust control strategy for a class of distributed network with transmission delays

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to concern the design of a robust model predictive controller for distributed networked systems with transmission delays. Design/methodology/approach The overall system is composed of a number of interconnected nonlinear subsystems with time-varying transmission delays. A distributed networked system with transmission delays is modeled as a nonlinear system with a time-varying delay. Time delays appear in distributed systems due to the information transmission in the communication network or transport of material between the sub-plants. In real applications, the states may not be available directly and it could be a challenge to address the control problem in interconnected systems using a centralized architecture because of the constraints on the computational capabilities and the communication bandwidth. The controller design is characterized as an optimization problem of a “worst-case” objective function over an infinite moving horizon. Findings The aim is to propose control synthesis approach that depends on nonlinearity and time varying delay characteristics. The MPC problem is represented in a time varying delayed state feedback structure. Then the synthesis sufficient condition is provided in the form of a linear matrix inequality (LMI) optimization and is solved online at each time instant. In the rest, an LMI-based decentralized observer-based robust model predictive control strategy is proposed. Originality/value The authors develop RMPC strategies for a class of distributed networked systems with transmission delays using LMI-Based technique. To evaluate the applicability of the developed approach, the control design of a networked chemical reactor plant with two sub-plants is studied. The simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed method.