Internet-based control systems. Design and applications. (Q983257)

The book deals with the characteristics of Internet communication from a control theory perspective, and discusses control architecture, procedures and implementations. It argues that Internet based control systems provide means for efficient and centralized control systems (but also for increased transparency and remote collaborative research) if they are able to deal with the problems of data delay and Internet security. Basically the theoretical issue consists in integrating an Internet layer/node within a more general/traditional control structure/loop. The author sets out a multiple layer architecture in which the Internet may be placed at the communication layer. Reliability and security are reasons to place the Internet at the management level, thus involding only one crucial access point. The other layers working with virtual Internet links via the managemet layer. Time delay in the Internet or possible data drop call for an architecture in which the local level possesses some amount of autonomy, and the general (remote) control involves a simulation of the local level to synchronise command and control. In this way Internet based control systems may exhibit a bilateral control structure. The book aims mainly at engineers (by involving several case studies and experimental setups to vindicate its design proposals), but also at computer scientists in general, as it develops on a conceptual level the ideas of an Internet based control architecture and also hints at practical programming level implementations (like the usage of XML or data packing into Java implemented objects) with a view to security and performance across hetereogeneous systems in the Internet. The first few chapters provide a textbook style introduction to the topic.