Multitasking Supervisory Control of Discrete-Event Systems

This paper presents an approach for functionally dealing with multiple tasks in the supervisory control of discrete-event systems (DES). The colored marking generator (CMG), a special type of Moore automaton, is introduced as a model that distinguishes classes of tasks in DES. The main results of supervisory control theory are extended to this model, allowing the synthesis of minimally restrictive supervisors, which respect the safety specifications and ensure coreachability of multiple control objectives. Reversibility is also investigated as an alternative way of ensuring liveness of multiple tasks. Two examples illustrate the convenience of this approach.