This paper describes an architecture and system to implement distributed control and data processing applications in a thin-client manner, suitable for implementing a thin-client mobile robotics system.The system dynamically adapts fidelity and locality of control processing to suit the current operating conditions and resource situation. It takes advantage of several key differences between client-server applications and other QoS dependent applications and positions itself as an architecture suitable for use in environments where network services are many and variable.An example application is presented in which the architecture is used to implement the distributed control of an inverted pendulum over a shared network. Performance results are compared with non-adaptive distributed control approaches.