For many years now, data networking technologies have been widely applied in the control of various applications such as manufacturing plants, automobiles, and aircrafts. Connecting the control system components in these applications, such as sensors, controllers, and actuators, via a network can effectively reduce the complexity of the systems with nominal economical investments. Furthermore, the applications connected through a network can be remotely controlled from a long-distance. Traditionally, the networks used in the aforementioned applications are specific industrial networks, such as CAN (Controller Area Networks), and PROFIBUS. In the last decade, general data networks such as Ethernet and Internet are rapidly advancing to be the networks of choices for many applications due to their flexibility and lower costs. However, IP networks also introduce stochastic network delay characteristics. A challenging problem in network-based control system is the network delay effects, which not only degrade the performance of a network-based control system, but also can destabilize the system.

This presentation will briefly overview the fundamentals of network-based control. A general structure of a network-based control system, delay types, and delay behaviors are also described in this presentation. We will present a gain-scheduling middleware (GSM) to compensate network-delay effect. A network-based mobile robot path-tracking problem will be used to illustrate the GSM technology. Furthermore, network-based control system implementation became possible and easy after the tremendous increase in the deployments of wireless systems. But the wireless medium is susceptible to easy intercepting, it is critical to protect transmitted data from unauthorized access and modifications in wireless systems. This presentation will also discuss the issues of NCS information security as well as the effect on its time-sensitive performance with respect to network security schemes. The characterization of NCS platforms with respect to security will also be presented.

Prof. Mo-Yuen Chow

Mo-Yuen Chow earned his degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (B.S., 1982); and Cornell University (M. Eng., 1983; Ph.D., 1987). Dr. Chow joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at North Carolina State University as an Assistant Professor in 1997, became an Associate Professor in 1993, and a Professor since 1999. He worked in U.S. Army, TACOM TARDEC Division as a Senior Research Scientist during the summer of 2003. He spent his sabbatical leave as a Visiting Scientist in 1995 in ABB Automated Distribution Division.

Dr. Chow’s research focuses on diagnosis, control, and computational intelligence. He has been applying his research to areas including mechatronics, motors, power distribution systems, network-based distributed control systems, and robotics. He has established the Advanced Diagnosis, Automation and Control Laboratory at NC State University. He has published one book, five book chapters, and over one hundred journal and conference articles. Dr. Chow is an IEEE Fellow, an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, and the Vice President for Publication of IEEE Industrial Electronics Society. He was the General Chair of IEEE-IECON05. Dr. Chow served as a guest editor for the IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics special sections on Distributed Network-Based Control Systems and Applications (2003), on Motor Fault Detection and Diagnosis (2000), and on Application of Intelligent Systems to Industrial Electronics (1993).He was a Senior Fellow of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science in 2003. He has received the IEEE Eastern North Carolina Section Outstanding Engineering Educator Award in 2004, and the IEEE Region-3 Joseph M. Biedenbach Outstanding Engineering Educator Award in 2005.