A Supervisory Control Algorithm Based on Property-Directed Reachability

Abstract

We present an algorithm for synthesising a controller (supervisor) for a discrete event system (DES) based on the property-directed reachability (PDR) model checking algorithm. The discrete event systems framework is useful in both software, automation and manufacturing, as problems from those domains can be modelled as discrete supervisory control problems. As a formal framework, DES is also similar to domains for which the field of formal methods for computer science has developed techniques and tools. In this paper, we attempt to marry the two by adapting PDR to the problem of controller synthesis. The resulting algorithm takes as input a transition system with forbidden states and uncontrollable transitions, and synthesises a safe and minimally-restrictive controller, correct-by-design. We also present an implementation along with experimental results, showing that the algorithm has potential as a part of the solution to the greater effort of formal supervisory controller synthesis and verification.

Synthesis of infinite-state systems with random behavior

“…In contrast, JSyn-vg is a completely automated approach exempting the user from necessity to further reason about the shape of the computed solution and allowing to focus on expressing the problem in the form of input-output contracts. Permissive solutions for infinite-state games have primarily been proposed in the context supervisor synthesis [13,43], where a controller is synthesized considering a formal representation of the behavior (inputs) provided by the participating plant. Compared to this work, our proposed solution explores the applicability of synthesized controllers with random behavior, while the overall synthesis task is inherently harder due to not requiring an exact implementation of the controller's environment.…”