Handbook of Networked and Embedded Control Systems [Hardcover]

The vast majority of control systems built today are embedded; that is, they rely on built-in, special-purpose digital computers to close their feedback loops. Embedded systems are common in aircraft, factories, chemical processing plants, and even in carsa single high-end automobile may contain over eighty different computers. The design of embedded controllers and of the intricate, automated communication networks that support them raises many new questionspractical, as well as theoreticalabout network protocols, compatibility of operating systems, and ways to maximize the effectiveness of the embedded hardware.

This handbook, the first of its kind, provides engineers, computer scientists, mathematicians, and students a broad, comprehensive source of information and technology to address many questions and aspects of embedded and networked control. Separated into six main sectionsFundamentals, Hardware, Software, Theory, Networking, and Applicationsthis work unifies into a single reference many scattered articles, websites, and specification sheets. Also included are case studies, experiments, and examples that give a multifaceted view of the subject, encompassing computation and communication considerations.

Thishandbookwasmotivatedinpartbyourexperience(andthatofothers)in performing research and in teaching about networked and embedded control systems (NECS) as well as in implementing such systems. Although NECS along with the technologies that enable themhave become ubiquitous, there are few, if any, sources where a student, researcher, or developer can gain a su?ciently broad view of the subject. Oftentimes, the needed information is scattered in articles, websites, and speci?cation sheets. Such di?culties are perhaps to be expected, given the relative newness of the subject and the diversity of its constitutive disciplines. From control theory and communi- tions, to computer science and electronlÃF