Goal-oriented Policies for Cost of Actuation Error Minimization in Wireless Autonomous Systems

Abstract: We consider the minimization of the cost of actuation error under resource constraints for real-time tracking in wireless autonomous systems. A transmitter monitors the state of a discrete random process and sends updates to the receiver over an unreliable wireless channel. The receiver takes actions according to the estimated state of the source. For each discrepancy between the real state of the source and the estimated one, we consider a different cost of actuation error. This models the case where some states, and consequently the corresponding actions to be taken, are more important than others. We provide two algorithms: one reaching an optimal solution but of high complexity, and one providing a suboptimal solution but with low complexity. The performance of the two algorithms are quite close as shown by the simulations.