On the design and control of wireless networked embedded systems

Wireless networked embedded systems are becoming increasingly important in a wide area of technical fields. In this tutorial paper we present recent results on the design of these systems and their use in control applications, that have been developed within the project Reconfigurable Ubiquitous Networked Embedded Systems (RUNES). RUNES is a European Integrated Project with the aim to control complexity in networked embedded systems by developing robust and scalable middleware systems. New components for control under varying network conditions are discussed for the RUNES architecture. The paper highlights how the complexity of the closed-loop system is increased, due to additional disturbances introduced by the communication system: additional delays, jitter, data rate limitations, packet losses etc. Experimental work on integration test beds that demonstrates these results is presented, together with motivating links to the RUNES disaster relief tunnel scenario.