9312587 Shayman The proposed research project deals with supervisory control of nondeterministic discrete event systems. Discrete event systems are systems which involve quantities which take on a discrete set of values and which are constant except at discrete times when events occur in the system. Examples include communication networks, intelligent vehicle highway systems, manufacturing systems and computer programs. Supervisory control theory was developed to provide a mathematical framework for the design of controllers for such systems in order to meet various qualitative constraints. A research program on the supervisory control of nondeterministic systems will be undertaken. Supervisory control of both untimed and timed systems will be studied under complete as well as partial observation. Centralized as well as decentralized, hierarchical and modular control techniques will be developed. Efficient computational techniques to verify the existence of supervisors, to synthesize them when they exist and to synthesize minimally restrictive supervisors will be obtained. Both off-line and on-line computational techniques will be considered. The results will be applied to the problem of integrated management of communication networks. ***
