Caltech/AFRL, Spring 2012

	Specification, Design, and Verification
	of Networked Control Systems
	Richard M. Murray and Ufuk Topcu
	24-26 April 2012

Course Description

Increases in fast and inexpensive computing and communications have enabled a new generation of information-rich control systems that rely on multi-threaded networked execution, distributed optimization, sensor fusion and protocol stacks in increasingly sophisticated ways. This course will provide working knowledge of a collection of methods and tools for specifying, designing and verifying networked control systems. We combine methods from computer science (temporal logic, model checking, synthesis of control protocols) with those from dynamical systems and control (Lyapunov functions, trajectory generation, receding horizon control) to analyze and design partially asynchronous control protocols for continuous systems. In addition to introducing the mathematical techniques required to formulate problems and prove properties, we also describe a software toolbox (TuLiP) that is designed for analyzing and synthesizing hybrid control systems using linear temporal logic and robust performance specifications.

Course information

• Instructors: Richard M. Murray (Caltech, CDS) and Ufuk Topcu (Caltech, CDS)
• Date and location: 24-26 April 2012, Dayton, OH
• Sponsors: Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Multi-Scale Systems Center (MuSyC), Boeing Corporation, United Technologies Corporation

Lecture Schedule

The schedule below lists the lectures that will be given as part of the course. Each lecture will last approximately 90 minutes. The individual lecture pages give an overview of the lecture and links to additional information.

Lec	Date/time	Title	Reaching
	Tue, 8:30	Registration
	Thu, 3:00	Adjourn

Software Installation

We will make use of two programs during the lab sessions:

• Spin - model checker for formal verification of distributed systems
• TuLiP - python-based toolbox for temporal logic planning and controller synthesis

During the course, we will access these programs on a remote machine using ssh. For some parts of the course it will be useful to have a local installation of MATLAB that can be used for visualizing some simulation results.

If you would like to install the software on your own, here are some basic directions for installing the two packages:

• Spin: if you are using Windows, you can download a binary installation. For Mac's, you need to compile from source. For this you will need a C compiler, such as the one that is part of the Xcode developer toolbox
• TuLiP: you will need a python installation (2.6 or greater) with SciPy (0.9 or greater) installed. You might consider using the Enthought Python distribution. Once you have scipy installed, you will need to install several other python packages, including cvxopt and yices. A list of required package is available on the TuLiP project page.