Date of Award

Winter 12-26-2016

Level of Access Assigned by Author

Campus-Only Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Advisor

Ali Abedi

Second Committee Member

Richard Eason

Third Committee Member

David Kotecki

Additional Committee Members

Nuri Emanetoglu

Silvia Nittel

Praveen Shankar

Abstract

Research into Wireless Sensor and Actuator Network (WiSAN) is growing at a rapidly increasing rate. Many research works have been conducted to facilitate design, development, and optimization of WiSAN. It is important to design highly reliable networks so that they can be used to accomplish complicated tasks such as controlling an Aerospace launch vehicle. In this research, the goal is to study the effects of feedback delay and noise on control systems to more accurately modelwireless control networks. The transient effects of delay and noise are important when modeling a wireless feedback link. The overall transfer function of a wireless feedback control system will be different from its wired counterpart, changing the stability region by lowering the gain margin of the system. The wireless sensor nodes add in complexity in the form of delay and noise to the feedback signal. Wireless control networks have many applications. Anywhere a wired control system is used a wireless control network can be used to increase modularity and the ease of installation. Aerospace vehicles in particular benefit from the develop- ment of WiSAN systems because of the decreased vehicle weight due to eliminating wires, cables, bundling and fixtures. In this thesis, stability requirements of wireless feedback control systems are studied. The effects of delay on the stability and transient characteristics such as rise time and overshoot are studied in depth. First and second order systems control systems with 1, 2 and N feedback sensors are considered.

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