Building Resilient Cloud-Based Infrastructure for Intelligent Control Systems

Distributed control systems constitute an important area of application for smart technology, particularly when information and communication technology are involved in control actions. In this regard, smart technology must address outstanding design problems that concern the optimization of control systems resources and communication networks, the integration of control systems within IEC 61499 design standards, as well as the evaluation of their operation conditions in real-time. Networked control systems are a particular cyber-physical class in which the control system is assisted by data transport networks, considering the natural constraints that arise from the scenario. For instance, one of the major current control systems problems is the joint optimization of networked control systems communications and control actions, since each one of those systems independently has optimization targets that considerably improve their respective performance as well as the information that these systems provide to each other. However, implementing such a joint optimization process introduces a conflict of interest with distinct cost or utility functions for each control system, alongside reliability and fault-tolerance issues that generally remain unaddressed when executing the control or communications actions.

Cloud technologies represent key support for network control system applications and evolution, especially in scenarios that include interest-based control, such as automated driving and intelligent transportation systems. The interconnection of vehicular systems interactions through cloud resources enables support for cooperative control processes of complex events, for example, the request of priority traffic signals for emergency vehicles. However, driven by an interest-centric network model, new challenges emerge, including optimization processes at every stage of the control actions, given the associated costs of each action—both control and communications. Intelligent control systems are enabling technologies, considering the push that artificial intelligence has been given for the interconnection and joint coordination of multiple CPSs. The progress of artificial intelligence for control lies in the interconnection and joint operation of multiple cyber-physical systems, engineers of optimization policies using intelligent control systems, and the amalgamation of the power and capability of cloud technologies to bring Internet of Things devices to market and provide scalability for future needs.