Introduction to the Modelling, Control and Optimization of Discrete Event Systems

摘要

The theory of Discrete Event Systems (DES) is a research area of currentvitality. The development of this theory is largely stimulated by discovering general principles which are (or are hoped to be) useful to a wide range of application domains. Theoretical disciplines that support the study of DES include systems theory, operations research, computer science, and industrial engineering. With such a variety of fields of application and supporting disciplines it will come as no surprise that the theory of DES ecompasses a variety of classes of problems and of modelling approaches. It is fair to say that no single approach dominates the others, nor is it necessarily desirable that it should be otherwise. In this paper, one will discover three main streams of activity. First, the 'logical' approach, based on automata and formal languages, in which the precise ordering of the events of interest; this ordering must satisfy a given set of specifications imposed on it. Second, the max-plus algebra approach, in which, in addition to the ordering, the timing of the events plays an essential role. Lastly, the sample path analysis approach, in which once again the timing of the events is crucial for the purpose of evaluating and optimizing the performance of DES, especially in a stochastic environment. Historically, these three streams were developed more or less independently (and simultaneously), each of them coining the acronym DES or DEDS, but currently one discovers more and more interrelationships. (Copyright (C) 1995 Delft University of Technology).