Introduction

Abstract

Networked control systems (NCSs) are spatially distributed systems wherein the communication between plants, sensors, actuators, and controllers occurs through a communication channel. This chapter gives an introduction to NCSs, explains the main problems, and gives the research trends reported in this book. A brief history of the NCS is the starting point of this chapter. After that, an overview of NCSs and asynchronous systems is provided, including the advantages and disadvantages of networked systems and the main research trends. A short description of the application areas is given, and different schemes from centralized to distributed techniques and the asynchronous control possibilities in NCSs are presented. Finally, some stability issues that are used along the book are introduced.