Supervisory Control of Probabilistic Discrete Event Systems under Partial Observation

The supervisory control of probabilistic discrete event systems (PDESs) is investigated under the assumptions that the supervisory controller (supervisor) is probabilistic and has a partial observation. The probabilistic P-supervisor is defined, which specifies a probability distribution on the control patterns for each observation. The notions of the probabilistic controllability and observability are proposed and demonstrated to be a necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of the probabilistic P-supervisors. Moreover, the polynomial verification algorithms for the probabilistic controllability and observability are put forward. In addition, the infimal probabilistic controllable and observable superlanguage is introduced and computed as the solution of the optimal control problem of PDESs. Several examples are presented to illustrate the results obtained.Comment: 36 pages, comments are welcom

A Hybrid Systems-based Hierarchical Control Architecture for Heterogeneous Field Robot Teams

Field robot systems have recently been applied to a wide range of research fields. Making such systems more automated, advanced, and activated requires cooperation among heterogeneous robots. Classic control theory is inefficient in managing large-scale complex dynamic systems. Therefore, the supervisory control theory based on discrete event system needs to be introduced to overcome this limitation. In this study, we propose a hybrid systems-based hierarchical control architecture through a supervisory control-based high-level controller and a traditional control-based low-level controller. The hybrid systems and its dynamics are modeled through a formal method called hybrid automata, and the behavior specifications expressing the control objectives for cooperation are designed. Additionally, a modular supervisor that is more scalable and maintainable than a centralized supervisory controller was synthesized. The proposed hybrid systems and hierarchical control architecture were implemented, validated, and then evaluated for performance through the physics-based simulator. Experimental results confirmed that the heterogeneous field robot team satisfied the given specifications and presented systematic results, validating the efficiency of the proposed control architecture.Comment: 23pages, 19 figures, submitted for publicatio