Position Control of Linear Actuator with Uncertain Time Delay in VDN

Uncertain time delay happens when the process reads the sensor data and sends the control input to the plant located at a remote site in distributed control system. As in the case of data network using TCP/IP, VDN that integrates both device network and data network has uncertain tim e delay. Uncertain time delay can cause degradation in stability of distributed control system based on VDN. This paper investigates the transmission characteristic of VDN and suggests a control scheme based on the Smith's predictor to minimize the effect of uncertain time delay. The validity of the proposed control scheme is demonstrated with tracking position control of experiments.