Supervisory control of distributed systems: Conflict resolution (Q1975201)

A scheme with reporter maps for a hierarchical approach to the supervisory control of a discrete-event system is formalized. These maps, each acting as an interface between a modular supervisor and the plant, mediate the flow of information and control, thereby achieving suspension and reactivation of the modular supervisors. Sufficient conditions on these reporter maps for conflict resolution are obtained. With these conditions, a constructive solution is developed, which in essence suspends a supervisor ``just in time'' to prevent conflict and reactivates it when the plant and the other supervisors return to the state they were in when the suspension began. Examples inspired by the feature interaction problem in telecommunication systems are provided for illustration.