Towards a System Theoretic Foundation for Control over Networks
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Lecture Details
P. R. Kumar obtained his B. Tech. degree in Electrical Engineering (Electronics) from I.I.T. Madras in 1973, and the M.S. and D.Sc. degrees in Systems Science and Mathematics from Washington University, St. Louis, in 1975 and 1977, respectively. From 1977-84 he was a faculty member in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. Since 1985 he has been at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where he is currently Franklin W. Woeltge Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Research Professor in the Coordinated Science Laboratory, Research professor in the Information Trust Institute, and Affiliate Professor of the Department of Computer Science.
He has worked on problems in game theory, adaptive control, stochastic systems, simulated annealing, neural networks, machine learning, queueing networks, manufacturing systems, scheduling, and wafer fabrication plants. His current research interests are in wireless networks, sensor networks, and networked embedded control systems. He has received the Donald P. Eckman Award of the American Automatic Control Council, the IEEE Field Award in Control Systems, and the Fred W. Ellersick Prize of the IEEE Communications Society. He is a Fellow of the IEEE, and member of the US National Academy of Engineering. He was awarded a Doctor of Science, Honoris Causa, by Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule, Zurich in 2008.
We address several issues that are important for developing a comprehensive understanding of the problems of control over networks. Proceeding from bottom to top, we describe theoretical frameworks to study the following issues, and present some answers:
(i) Network information theory:
Are there limits to information transfer over wireless networks? How should nodes in a network cooperate to achieve information transfer?
(ii) In-network information processing:
How should data from distributed sensors be fused over a wireless network? Can one classify functions of sensor data vis-a-vis how difficult they are to compute over a wireless network?
(iii) Real-time scheduling over wireless networks:
How should packets with hard deadlines be scheduled for transmission over unreliable nodes? What QoS guarantees can be provided with respect to latencies and throughputs?
(iv) Clock synchronization over wireless networks:
What are the ultimate limits to synchronization error? How should clocks be synchronized?
(v) System level guarantees in networked control:
How can one provide overall guarantees on of networked control systems that take into account hybrid behavior, real-time interactions, and distributed aspects?
(vi) Abstractions and architecture:
What are appropriate abstractions, and what is an appropriate architecture, to simplify networked control system design and deployment?
