No Arabic abstract
We identify a new observability concept, called relative observability, in supervisory control of discrete-event systems under partial observation. A fixed, ambient language is given, relative to which observability is tested. Relative observability is stronger than observability, but enjoys the important property that it is preserved under set union; hence there exists the supremal relatively observable sublanguage of a given language. Relative observability is weaker than normality, and thus yields, when combined with controllability, a generally larger controlled behavior; in particular, no constraint is imposed that only observable controllable events may be disabled. We design algorithms which compute the supremal relatively observable (and controllable) sublanguage of a given language, which is generally larger than the normal counterparts. We demonstrate the new observability concept and algorithms with a Guideway and an AGV example.
Recently we proposed relative observability for supervisory control of discrete-event systems under partial observation. Relative observability is closed under set unions and hence there exists the supremal relatively observable sublanguage of a given language. In this paper we present a new characterization of relative observability, based on which an operator on languages is proposed whose largest fixpoint is the supremal relatively observable sublanguage. Iteratively applying this operator yields a monotone sequence of languages; exploiting the linguistic concept of support based on Nerode equivalence, we prove for regular languages that the sequence converges finitely to the supremal relatively observable sublanguage, and the operator is effectively computable. Moreover, for the purpose of control, we propose a second operator that in the regular case computes the supremal relatively observable and controllable sublanguage. The computational effectiveness of the operator is demonstrated on a case study.
We study the new concept of relative coobservability in decentralized supervisory control of discrete-event systems under partial observation. This extends our previous work on relative observability from a centralized setup to a decentralized one. A fundamental concept in decentralized supervisory control is coobservability (and its several variations); this property is not, however, closed under set union, and hence there generally does not exist the supremal element. Our proposed relative coobservability, although stronger than coobservability, is algebraically well-behaved, and the supremal relatively coobservable sublanguage of a given language exists. We present an algorithm to compute this supremal sublanguage. Moreover, relative coobservability is weaker than conormality, which is also closed under set union; unlike conormality, relative coobservability imposes no constraint on disabling unobservable controllable events.
We study supervisor localization for real-time discrete-event systems (DES) in the Brandin-Wonham framework of timed supervisory control. We view a real-time DES as comprised of asynchronous agents which are coupled through imposed logical and temporal specifications; the essence of supervisor localization is the decomposition of monolithic (global) control action into local control strategies for these individual agents. This study extends our previous work on supervisor localization for untimed DES, in that monolithic timed control action typically includes not only disabling action as in the untimed case, but also ``clock preempting action which enforces prescribed temporal behavior. The latter action is executed by a class of special events, called ``forcible events; accordingly, we localize monolithic preemptive action with respect to these events. We demonstrate the new features of timed supervisor localization with a manufacturing cell case study, and discuss a distributed control implementation.
Recently we developed supervisor localization, a top-down approach to distributed control of discrete-event systems. Its essence is the allocation of monolithic (global) control action among the local control strategies of individual agents. In this paper, we extend supervisor localization by considering partial observation; namely not all events are observable. Specifically, we employ the recently proposed concept of relative observability to compute a partial-observation monolithic supervisor, and then design a suitable localization procedure to decompose the supervisor into a set of local controllers. In the resulting local controllers, only observable events can cause state change. Further, to deal with large-scale systems, we combine the partial-observation supervisor localization with an efficient architectural synthesis approach: first compute a heterarchical array of partial-observation decentralized supervisors and coordinators, and then localize each of these supervisors/coordinators into local controllers.
Recently we developed supervisor localization, a top-down approach to distributed control of discrete-event systems (DES) with finite behavior. Its essence is the allocation of monolithic (global) control action among the local control strategies of individual agents. In this report, we extend supervisor localization to study the distributed control of DES with infinite behavior. Specifically, we first employ Thistle and Wonhams supervisory control theory for DES with infinite behavior to compute a safety supervisor (for safety specifications) and a liveness supervisor (for liveness specifications), and then design a suitable localization procedure to decompose the safety supervisor into a set of safety local controllers, one for each controllable event, and decompose the liveness supervisor into a set of liveness local controllers, two for each controllable event. The localization procedure for decomposing the liveness supervisor is novel; in particular, a local controller is responsible for disabling the corresponding controllable event on only part of the states of the liveness supervisor, and consequently, the derived local controller in general has states number no more than that computed by considering the disablement on all the states. Moreover, we prove that the derived local controllers achieve the same controlled behavior with the safety and liveness supervisors. We finally illustrate the result by a Small Factory example.