Control of Discrete Event Systems - Research at the Interface of Control Theory and Computer Science

This expository paper is directed to a general audience of engineers, mathematicians , and computer scientists. A discrete event system is a mathematical model (in the form of an automaton, Petri nets, or process algebra) of, for example, a computer controlled engineering system such as a communication network. Control theory for discrete event systems aims at synthesis procedures for a supervisor that forces a discrete event system such that it satisses prespeciied control objectives. As an example it is discussed how the control problem of blocking prevention for nondeterministic systems may be solved by the use of failure semantics.