LQG Control via Wireless sensor Networks with Minimal Transmission Power

This study concerns control of dynamical systems via wireless sensor nodes with minimal transmission power. In particular, we jointly design a controller and a transmission power control mechanism that adjusts the transmit power of a wireless sensor node. We develop a framework for achieving the minimum expected transmit power required for a specific level of the LQG control performance.We model the communication channel between the wireless sensor node and the controller by an AWGN channel compatible with the IEEE 802.15.4 standard, which was formed for the specification of low-data-rate and low-power wireless communication. We use dynamic programming to characterize the optimal policies, and show that there exists a separation between the designs of the optimal estimator, optimal controller, and optimal transmission power control mechanism.