Wolf Research is on the relationship between high-level control specifications and the finite state machine (FSM) implementation of that control. Models for two problems in high-level control synthesis are being explored: Analysis of delays in mixed data- control systems before scheduling; and scheduling in complex control systems. The approach is to use the behavior FSM, a finite state machine whose inputs and outputs are partially ordered in time. The approach to solving the state minimization problem is to search over possible schedules of input and output events to choose an implementation of a minimum number of states. Algorithms developed for compaction on a cylinder are being used to move both simple outputs and branches to minimize the number of states around cycles in a behavior state transition graph.
