  Networked Control Systems (NCS) are distributed systems where plants,
sensors, actuators and controllers communicate over shared networks. Non-ideal
behaviors of the communication network include variable sampling/transmission
intervals and communication delays, packet losses, communication constraints
and quantization errors. NCS have been the object of intensive study in the
last few years. However, due to the inherent complexity of NCS, current
literature focuses on a subset of these non-idealities and mostly considers
stability and stabilizability problems. Recent technology advances need
different and more complex control objectives to be considered. In this paper
we present first a general model of NCS, including most relevant non-idealities
of the communication network; then, we propose a symbolic model approach to the
control design with objectives expressed in terms of non-deterministic
transition systems. The presented results are based on recent advances in
symbolic control design of continuous and hybrid systems. An example in the
context of robot motion planning with remote control is included, showing the
effectiveness of the proposed approach.
