Alessandro D'Innocenzo

Raphael M. Jungers, Alessandro D'Innocenzo, Maria D. Di Benedetto

We analyze a classification of two main families of controllers that are of interest when the feedback loop is subject to switching propagation delays due to routing via a wireless multi-hop communication network. We show that we can cast this problem as a subclass of classical switching systems, which is a non-trivial generalization of classical LTI systems with timevarying delays. We consider both cases where delay-dependent and delay independent controllers are used, and show that both can be modeled as switching systems with unconstrained switchings. We provide NP-hardness results for the stability verification problem, and propose a general methodology for approximate stability analysis with arbitrary precision. We finally give evidence that non-trivial design problems arise for which new algorithmic methods are needed.

Maria D. Di Benedetto, Alessandro D'Innocenzo, Emmanuele Serra

A Multi-hop Control Network (MCN) consists of a plant where the communication between sensor, actuator and computational unit is supported by a wireless multi-hop communication network, and data flow is performed using scheduling and routing of sensing and actuation data. We address the problem of characterizing controllability and observability of a MCN, by means of necessary and sufficient conditions on the plant dynamics and on the communication scheduling and routing. We provide a methodology to design scheduling and routing, in order to satisfy controllability and observability of a MCN for any fault occurrence in a given set of configurations of failures.

Alessandro D'Innocenzo, Maria Domenica Di Benedetto, Emmanuele Serra

A Multi-hop Control Network (MCN) consists of a plant where the communication between sensors, actuators and computational unit is supported by a wireless multi-hop communication network, and data flow is performed using scheduling and routing of sensing and actuation data. We characterize the problem of detecting the failure of links of the radio connectivity graph and provide necessary and sufficient conditions on the plant dynamics and on the communication protocol. We also provide a methodology to \emph{explicitly} design the network topology, scheduling and routing of a communication protocol in order to satisfy the above conditions.

Achin Jain, Francesco Smarra, Enrico Reticcioli et al.

Model predictive control (MPC) can provide significant energy cost savings in building operations in the form of energy-efficient control with better occupant comfort, lower peak demand charges, and risk-free participation in demand response. However, the engineering effort required to obtain physics-based models of buildings is considered to be the biggest bottleneck in making MPC scalable to real buildings. In this paper, we propose a data-driven control algorithm based on neural networks to reduce this cost of model identification. Our approach does not require building domain expertise or retrofitting of existing heating and cooling systems. We validate our learning and control algorithms on a two-story building with ten independently controlled zones, located in Italy. We learn dynamical models of energy consumption and zone temperatures with high accuracy and demonstrate energy savings and better occupant comfort compared to the default system controller.

Yuriy Zacchia Lun, Alessandro D'Innocenzo, Ivano Malavolta et al.

Cyber-physical systems are integrations of computation, networking, and physical processes. Due to the tight cyber-physical coupling and to the potentially disrupting consequences of failures, security here is one of the primary concerns. Our systematic mapping study sheds some light on how security is actually addressed when dealing with cyber-physical systems. The provided systematic map of 118 selected studies is based on, for instance, application fields, various system components, related algorithms and models, attacks characteristics and defense strategies. It presents a powerful comparison framework for existing and future research on this hot topic, important for both industry and academia.

Antonio Cicone, Alessandro D'Innocenzo, Nicola Guglielmi et al.

We consider the optimal control design problem for discrete-time LTI systems with state feedback, when the actuation signal is subject to unmeasurable switching propagation delays, due to e.g. the routing in a multi-hop communication network and/or jitter. In particular, we set up a constrained optimization problem where the cost function is the worst-case $\mathcal{L}_2$ norm for all admissible switching delays. We first show how to model these systems as pure switching linear systems, and as main contribution of the paper we provide an algorithm to compute a sub-optimal solution.