Supervisory Control and Regulation of Discrete Dynamical Systems

我们的研究方向是工程学和应用数学的分支，称为自动控制，有时也称为控制论，即反馈系统的科学和技术。 这种系统的设计是为了将某些关键 ** 变量保持在可接受的范围内。 例如，飞机的自动驾驶仪可以修正风的干扰，否则风的干扰可能会使飞机偏离航线，甚至造成灾难性的后果。 我们特别感兴趣的是系统，如交通系统，它必须对瞬时事件作出反应，如车辆到达十字路口;和制造系统，它必须对新的零件订单或机器故障作出反应。另一个例子是汽车中的自动挂断系统，尽管它是由驾驶员“随机”启动的，但它的设计应该永远不会陷入“挂断”或阻塞等逻辑错误。** 这种离散事件系统及其控制要求在控制理论和计算机科学的接口新的和专门的技术。 一个主要的挑战 ** 是，这些系统可以（逻辑上）非常大和复杂。 例如，汽车ECU系统可能潜在地进入数百万个不同的内部状态或逻辑配置。 这可能导致对控制工程设计所需的计算能力的几乎压倒性的要求。** ** 我们正在开发正式的（即系统的和数学上严格的）方法，根据有效的架构原则组织此类系统。**这样的系统架构可以是分层的，即将组件组组织成逻辑“层”，类似于企业或政府组织中的管理级别。在那里，每个级别接受上级的命令，并向下级发出控制命令，但有 ** 反馈链接，给定级别可以向上级报告有价值的性能数据。或者，可以将主要系统组件 ** 分布式组织成半自治的智能代理，通过网络进行相互通信。 实际上，在实践中采用了这种垂直和水平架构的许多变型和组合。 任何系统架构的目标都是使复杂系统既透明（即人类可理解）又可计算（即服从控制设计，保证系统的行为符合规范）。 我们的最终目标 ** 是发展体系结构的规律，以指导选择最适合给定控制任务的体系结构。** 一个平行的研究目标是控制理论的内模原理（IMP）的扩展，根据该原理，一个“好”的控制器（在某种技术意义上）** 必须配备有关其环境动态结构的特定智能。 特别令人感兴趣的将是IMP在 ** 如上所述的离散事件系统的控制结构中的结合。**

Our proposed research lies in the branch of engineering and applied mathematics called automatic control or**sometimes cybernetics, namely the science and technology of feedback systems. Such systems are designed to maintain some critical **variable(s) within an acceptable range. For instance, an aircraft's automatic pilot corrects for wind disturbances which might otherwise**drive the plane off course, perhaps disastrously. Of specific interest to us are systems, such as traffic systems, which must respond to instantaneous**events, like the arrival at an intersection of a vehicle; and manufacturing systems, which must respond to a new part order or a machine breakdown.**Another example is the pushbutton system in an automobile which, though "randomly" activated by the motorist, should be designed never to fall into** a logical error like "hangup" or blocking.** **Such discrete-event systems and their control call for new and specialized techniques at the interface of control theory and computer science. A major challenge** is that these systems can be (logically) very large and complex. For instance, the automobile pushbutton system may potentially enter many millions of different internal** states or logical configurations. This may lead to almost overwhelming requirements on the computing power needed for control engineering design.** **We are developing formal (i.e. systematic and mathematically rigorous) methods of organizing such systems according to effective architectural principles.**Such a system architecture could be hierarchical, namely an organization of component groups into logical "layers", analogous to the levels of management **in a business or governmental organization. There each level takes orders from the one above, and issues control commands to the one below, but with **feedback links by which a given level can report valuable performance data to the level above. Alternatively one might organize the main system components** distributively into semi-autonomous smart agents that intercommunicate by networking. In fact many variations and combinations of such vertical and **horizontal architectures are employed in practice. The objective of any system architecture is to render a complex system both transparent (i.e. humanly**intelligible) and computable (i.e. amenable to control design which guarantees that the system will behave in accordance with specification). Our ultimate goal **is to develop laws of architecture to guide the choice of architecture best suited to a given control task.** **A parallel research goal is extension of the internal model principle (IMP) of control theory, according to which a "good" controller (in a certain technical sense) **must be equipped with specific intelligence concerning the dynamical structure of its environment. Of especial interest will be the incorporation of the IMP in**the control architectures of discrete-event systems as outlined above.** **