Extremum seeking control with sporadic packet transmission for networked control systems

Extremum seeking control (ESC) is a data-driven optimization technique that can steer a dynamic plant toward an extremum of an unknown but measurable input to steady-state output. In the context of networked control systems, a new implementation method for ESC inspired by the well-known Luus-Jaakola algorithm is proposed. The main motivation is to minimize the communication burden associated with the search phase of ESC. In the proposed method, the controller only requires a notification of a change registered at the sensor, rather than the full information available at the sensor. This event-based approach leads to sporadic packet transmission. In addition, the proposed method is able to directly account for constraints while seeking the desired extremum. The constraints may be of the inequality or equality type. The algorithm's behavior is illustrated on a networked water pump control system.