The book “Supervisory Control of Discrete-Event Systems” authored by Dr. Ali Akbar Afzalian, associate professor of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering (Power and Control) of SBU and Vahid Saeidi has been published recently by SBU Press in 240 pages.
The behavior of the system in many industrial processes is affected by sudden changes or discontinuities of some variables (caused by internal or external factors) in addition to continuous dynamics. The theory of “Supervisory Control” deals with the analysis of discrete-event dynamics and the designing of the supervisor controller in order to achieve the desired performance characteristics. In other words, this theory is a junction between the theory of control systems and the theory of computer systems. In this theory, concepts of control systems (such as controllability, observability, and optimality) are used together with concepts of computer systems (such as automata).
The present book introduces languages and automata as two tools for modeling discrete-event systems, Petri nets and their differences with automata in simulation and control, designing supervisory control, and supervisory control in a modular and distributed structure. The book also discusses the applications of supervisory control in the gas transmission network and step regulation of power transformers and finally explains considerations about the implementation of supervisory control on PLC programmable controllers.
The book, which is the result of the authors’ research activities and experience of teaching this subject for more than 15 years at SBU, was written with the aim of familiarizing graduate students and control engineers with supervisory control.