Ghulam Mustafa, PEng, SMIEEE

Sampled-Data Control

Most modern control systems are implemented using digital computers, referred to as computer-controlled or sampled-data systems. These systems offer advantages such as ease of reprogramming and better handling of delays compared to analog implementations.

Recent advancements in communication, computation, and sensing technologies have enabled the design of large and complex control systems by integrating computation, control, and communication. A typical configuration involves all information between the controller and the plant being exchanged through a shared communication network.

While this approach reduces wiring costs and simplifies maintenance, it introduces challenges in ensuring constant sampling periods and synchronized operation of sampling and hold devices. Designing controllers under the assumption of constant sampling periods may degrade system performance or lead to instability. This motivates the development of sampled-data theory that relaxes these assumptions.

Our group has made theoretical contributions in this area. Please refer to the Publications section for details.