This book faces the interdisciplinary challenge of formulating performance-assessing design approaches for networked cyber-physical systems (NCPSs). Its novel distributed multilayer cooperative control deals simultaneously with communication-network and control performance required for the network and application layers of an NCPS respectively. Practically, it distributes the computational burden among different devices, which act cooperatively to achieve NCPS goals. The approach can be applied to NCPSs based on both wired and wireless technologies and so is suitable for future network infrastructures in which different protocols and technologies coexist. The book reports realistic results from performance evaluation of the new approach, when applied in different operative scenarios.
Readers of this book will benefit by:
- learning a general, technology-independent methodology for the design and implementation of cooperative distributed algorithms forflow control at the network layer of an NCPS that gives algorithm-parameter-tuning guidelines for assessing the desired quality of service performance;
- learning a general methodology for the design and implementation of consensus-based algorithms at the application layer that allows monitoring and control of distributed physical systems and gives algorithm-parameter-tuning guidelines for assessing the desired control system performance;
- understanding the main network simulators needed to validate the effectiveness of the proposed multilayer control approach in different realistic network operation scenarios; and
- practising with a cooperative multilayer control project that assesses acceptable NCPS performance in networked monitoring and robot systems, autonomous and queuing networks, and other critical human relief applications.
Researchers, graduate students and practitioners working in automation, engineering, sensor networks, mobile robotics and computer networks will find this book instructive. It will also be helpful to network administrators and technicians implementing application-layer and network-layer solutions or installing, configuring or troubleshooting network and control system components of NCPSs.
Sabato Manfredi has been Assistant Professor of Automatic Control at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, University of Naples Federico II, Italy, since 2005. He has been Visiting Academic at Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department, Imperial College and Visiting Professor at School of Mathematical Sciences, Queen Mary, in London, UK. He collaborates with many international research groups, including: the Control and Power Group, Imperial College - London; the Complex Systems and Networks Research Group, Queen Mary University of London; and the Simbiot Research Group, Loria Lab - University of Lorraine.
His research interests are primarily in automatic control with a special emphasis on nonlinear and complex networks, multi-agent systems, distributed optimization, sensor/drone networks and new technologies/algorithms for Smart City, cyber-physical systems. He has published more than 80 scientific publications including 18 single-author papers and holds European patent. He received several awards for scientific activity and public engagement undertaken with research and technological transfer activities. Since 2004, he serves as reviewer of scientific and technical papers for several top ranked journals in the field of automatic control, computer science and communication networks. He also serves as independent evaluator of research and implementation projects funded by European Commission, Italian Ministry for University and Research, and Azerbaijan. He collaborates with many international universities and companies, is a proponent member of an academic spin-off and is involved in a range of academic, industrial and consulting projects.
