Error-correcting codes for automatic control

Abstract

In many control-theory applications one can classify all possible states of the device by an infinite state graph with polynomially-growing expansion. In order for a controller to control or estimate the state of such a device, it must receive reliable communications from its sensors; if there is channel noise, the encoding task is subject to a stringent real-time constraint. We show a constructive on-line error correcting code that works for this class of applications. Our code is computationally efficient and enables on-line estimation and control in the presence of channel noise. It establishes a constructive (and optimal-within-constants) analog, for control applications, of the Shannon coding theorem.