Abstract

A Network control system (NCS) is a control system in which communication between subsystems takes place over a digital network. Numerous results exist in the literature on modelling, analysis and design of NCSs in the presence of specific communication constraints such as packet dropouts, delays, data rates, quantization, etc. However, when analysing NCSs implemented on real physical networks, the existing results are based on restrictive assumptions. We consider NCSs over WirelessHART, the first international standard for industrial process control. With the goal of closing the gap between theory and practice, we propose for the first time a hybrid control-oriented model of WirelessHART NCSs under source routing configuration. Moreover, asymptotic and exponential stability results are presented under reasonable conditions.