IEEE CONTROL SYSTEMS SOCIETY TECHNICAL COMMITTEE
ON DISCRETE EVENT SYSTEMS

    Ryan J. Leduc
    Chair, IEEE CSS Technical Committee on DES
    Dept. of Computing and Software
    McMaster University
    1280 Main Street West
    Hamilton, Ontario
    Canada L8S 4K1

    Phone: (905) 525-9140 Ext. 27962
    Fax: (905) 524-0340
    e-mail: leduc@mcmaster.ca
    WWW: http://www.cas.mcmaster.ca/~leduc/

DESTC Web Page: http://www.cas.mcmaster.ca/destc/

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Contents:

1. Editorial

2. Announcements
 2.1 Journal of Control Science and Engineering--An Open Access Journal
 2.2 PhD, PostDoc: University of Zaragoza, Spain

3. Books
 3.1 Supervisory Control of Concurrent Systems: A Petri Net Structural
     Approach", by Marian V. Iordache and Panos J. Antsakli

4. Conferences
 4.1 The International Joint Conferences on Computer, Information, and
     Systems Sciences, and Engineering (CISSE 2006), Virtual
     Conference - Conducted on-line., December 4 - 14, 2006
 4.2 European Control Conference 2007 (ECC07), Kos, Greece, July 2 - 5,
     2007
 4.3 2007 IEEE Multiconference on Systems and Control (MSC), Singapore,
     October 1 - 3, 2007
 4.4 ANIPLA 2006: Methodologies for Emerging Technologies in Automation,
     Rome, Italy, November 13 - 15, 2006
 4.5 ICRA'07 2007 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and
     Automation, Rome, Italy, April 10 - 14, 2007
 4.6 Dependable Control of Discrete Systems (DCDS'07), Paris - France,
     June 13 - 15, 2007
 4.7 Automated Formal Methods 2006 (AFM 2006), Seattle, USA, August 21 -
     21, 2006

5. Journals
 5.1 Selections from Automatica, Volume 42, Issue 7, July 2006
 5.2 Control Engineering Practice, Volume 14, Issue 10, October 2006

Welcome to the newsletter of the IEEE Control Systems Technical Committee Group on Discrete Event Systems!

See http://www.cas.mcmaster.ca/destc/ for information on the DESTC.

Personal note from the editor:

Welcome to the June 2006 newsletter. Sorry this is a bit late coming
out, but I just got married last Saturday (June 17), and I'm still
getting caught up.

Contributed by: Ryan Leduc <leduc _aT- mcmaster -d-ot ca>

JOURNAL OF CONTROL SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING--AN OPEN ACCESS JOURNAL

Aims and Scope & Call for Papers

The Journal of Control Science and Engineering (JCSE) seeks to provide
an outlet for technical papers on advances in the field of control
systems and control technology. It aims at speedy, online publication
of original, peer-reviewed papers in all established and newly emerging
areas of control theory and applications, encompassing modeling,
identification, estimation, analysis, design, implementation of control
systems, and in broader and related areas of signal processing and
systems and information sciences. The Journal employs a paperless,
electronic submission and evaluation system to promote a rapid
turnaround in the peer review process. For more information, please
visit the journal's website:
http://www.hindawi.com/GetJournal.aspx?journal=JCSE

JCSE is an open access journal, hence the full text of all articles is
freely available on the journals website immediately after publication.
The main advantage of open access journals is that their readership is
not limited to the subscribing institutes, leading to higher rates of
downloads and citations than comparable subscription-based journals.

Manuscripts are invited and should be submitted by one of the authors
of the manuscript through the electronic Manuscript Tracking System
(MTS) at http://www.hindawi.com/mts/. All manuscripts are subject
to peer review and are expected to meet standards of academic
excellence. Another important issue is that the journal adopts
an article-by-article publishing mode for more rapid publication.
To read more about author guidelines, please go to the following URL:
http://www.hindawi.com/GetJournal.aspx?journal=JCSE&page=guidelines

We would like to take this opportunity to invite you to submit your
papers for publication to the journal and maximize the readership
and impact of your research articles.

Best regards,

JCSE Editorial Office

Contributed by: Ryan Leduc <leduc _aT- mcmaster -d-ot ca>

PHD, POSTDOC: UNIVERSITY OF ZARAGOZA, SPAIN

PhD or PostDoc position at
Systems Engineering and Discrete Event Systems Group
(http://webdiis.unizar.es/GISED/gised/)
Department of Computer Science and Systems Engineering
University of Zaragoza, Spain

The activities of the group are related to the modelling, analysis and
formal synthesis of some classes of artificial systems that are
interesting from a technical point of view (production systems,
computer systems, logistic systems, coordination systems, etc.).
Usually more adequately modelled by means of discrete event systems
formalisms (automata, Petri nets, process algebra, queuing
networks,...), the state explosion problem puts a limit to 
most of the analysis or synthesis techniques. Relaxations based on 
continuization appear as a possible way to overcome these difficulties
when largely populated systems, or systems with high cadence are
considered.

The project will be mainly focused on the formalism of continuous Petri
nets, defined relaxing the integrality constraint in a similar way as
influid queuing networks, and more specifically in optimization problems.

On the one hand, static optimization problems like resources
optimization (initial marking optimization), equipment selection (rate
and firing optimization) or processes and production subsystems
(structural optimization).

On the other hand, dynamic control of continuous Petri nets. The
desired continuous system controlling is based on the limitation of the
firing rate of transitions, in other words, limiting the speed of
system actions realization. In this way, the possible actions are
restricted: only system slowdown is possible and the actions have a
local marking dependent (state) upper limit. 
This fact makes difficult to use many classical control techniques.
Also robustness and sensibility aspects on the controlled system will
be addressed.

Once the relaxed model has been analysed or a control synthesized, it
is necessary to interpret and to adapt the results for the original
model.It may be necessary, for instance, to apply a post-optimization
to the discrete reconstruction (reduce the relaxation) from the
obtained results. If we are considering a control policy design, we
will need to study how to build from that policy a new one for the
discrete system but fulfilling the specified requirements.

PhD position:
The main task for the accepted candidate will be to conduct research
towards his/her PhD. The candidate is expected to complete the degree
within 4 years.

Applicants must have MSc (or equivalent) degree in Computer Science,
Mathematics, Electrical/Electronics or Communications Engineering.
Knowledge on operational research, automatic control and computer 
science will be specially welcome.

The salary will be around 1100 EUR/month, with an incremental raise in
the following years. Health insurance will also be provided.
The candidate would start on September 2006.


PostDoc position:
The position will be for one year (and can be extended to one more year)

A PhD-degree in computer science, automatic control or operational
research is required. Knowledge on optimization will be specially
welcome. The salary will be around 1800 EUR/month, with an incremental
raise in the following years. Health insurance will also be provided.

The candidate would start on September 2006.

Interested individuals should send a curriculum vitae to the address
below, and include the abstract of 2 or 3 of the publications that from
their point of view are more relevant for the position.

Contact: Applicants should send their CV no later than June 20 to

Laura Recalde (lrecalde@unizar.es)
Departamento de Informatica e Ingeniera de Sistemas
Universidad de Zaragoza
Maria de Luna 1, 
50018 Zaragoza, Spain

Contributed by: Ryan Leduc <leduc _aT- mcmaster -d-ot ca>

SUPERVISORY CONTROL OF CONCURRENT SYSTEMS: A PETRI NET STRUCTURAL
APPROACH

Marian V. Iordache and Panos J. Antsakli
Birkhaeuser Series, 2006
ISBN 0-8176-4357-5
http://www.springer.com/0-8176-4357-5

This book addresses the design of effective tools for correct-by-
construction synthesis of supervisors for systems and specifications 
represented in the discrete-event framework. The approach employed uses 
Petri nets as discrete-event models and structural methods for the
synthesis of supervisors, and may lead to significant computational
benefits.

Highlighting recent progress in the design of effective supervisors by 
structural methods, the book represents a novel contribution to the
field. One of the main features of the presentation is the
demonstration that structural methods can address a variety of
supervisor specifications under diverse supervision settings. Many of
the presented methods have been realized in software as functions of a
MATLAB toolbox, which have been used to solve many of the examples of
the book.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface * Symbols * Introduction * An Introduction to Petri Nets * The 
Supervision of Petri Nets * Enforcing General Specifications *
Decentralized Supervision of Petri Nets * Deadlock and Liveness
Properties of Petri Nets * Liveness Enforcement in Petri Nets: A
Structural Approach. Part  I * Liveness Enforcement in Petri Nets * A
Structural Approach. Part  II * DES Control of Concurrent Hybrid
Systems * Hybrid System Level Control * References * Index

Contributed by: Tarek Sobh <sobh@bridgeport.edu>

THE INTERNATIONAL JOINT CONFERENCES ON COMPUTER, INFORMATION, AND
SYSTEMS SCIENCES, AND ENGINEERING (CISSE 2006)
Virtual Conference - Conducted on-line.
December 4 - 14, 2006

Technically Co-Sponsored by:

Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers (IEEE); University of
Bridgeport

---------------------------------------------------------------------
CONFERENCE OVERVIEW
---------------------------------------------------------------------

CISSE 2006 provides a virtual forum for presentation and discussion 
of the state-of the-art research on computers, information and systems 
sciences and engineering. CISSE 2006 is the second conference of the
CISSE series of e-conferences. CISSE 2005 was the World's first 
Engineering/Computing and Systems Research E-Conference. CISSE 2005
 was the first high-caliber Research Conference in the world to be
 completely conducted online in real-time via the internet.

The CISSE 2006 virtual conference will be conducted through the 
Internet
using web-conferencing tools, made available by the conference. 
Authors
will be presenting their PowerPoint, audio or video presentations 
using
web-conferencing tools without the need for travel. Conference 
sessions
will be broadcast to all the conference participants, where session
participants can interact with the presenter during the presentation 
and
(or) during the Q&A slot that follows the presentation. This 
international
conference will be held entirely on-line. The accepted and presented 
papers
will be made available after the conference both on a CD and as a book
publication.
CISSE's publisher for the book proceedings is Springer.

Conference participants - authors, presenters and attendees - only 
need an
internet connection and sound available on their computers in order 
to be
able to contribute and participate in this international ground-
breaking
conference. The on-line structure of this high-quality event will 
allow
academic professionals and industry participants to contribute work 
and
attend world-class technical presentations based on rigorously 
refereed
submissions, live, without the need for investing significant travel 
funds
or time out of the office.

Potential non-author conference attendees who cannot make the on-line
conference dates are encouraged to register, as the entire joint
conferences will be archived for future viewing.

CISSE 2005 received 255 research paper submissions and the final 
program
included 140 accepted papers, from more  than 45 countries. The 
concept and
format of CISSE 2005 were very exciting and ground-breaking. The 
PowerPoint
presentations, final paper manuscripts and time schedule for live
presentations over the web had been available for 3 weeks prior to the
start of the conference for all registrants, so they could choose the
presentations they want to attend and think about questions that they 
might
want to ask.
The live audio presentations were also recorded and were part of the
permanent CISSE archive, which also included all power point 
presentations
and papers.

The CISSE conference audio room provided superb audio even over low 
speed
internet connections, the ability to display PowerPoint 
presentations, and
cross-platform compatibility (the conferencing software runs on 
Windows,
Mac, and any other operating system that supports Java). In addition, 
the
conferencing system allowed for an unlimited number of participants, 
which
in turn granted us the opportunity to allow all CISSE participants to
attend all presentations, as opposed to limiting the number of 
available
seats for each session.


CISSE 2006 is composed of the following four conferences:


International Conference on Industrial Electronics, Technology & 
Automation
(IETA 06)

Topics: Advanced and Distributed Control Systems, Intelligent Control
Systems (NN, FL, GA, .etc), Expert Systems, Man Machine Interaction, 
Data
Fusion, Factory Automation, Robotics, Motion Control, Machine Vision, 
MEMS
Sensors and Actuators, Sensors Fusion, Power Electronics, High 
Frequency
Converters, Motors and Drives, Power Converters, Power Devices and
Components, Electric Vehicles and Intelligent Transportation, Process
Automation, Factory Communication, Manufacturing Information System
Advances in Manufacturing Systems, Industrial Applications of Multi 
Media,
Intelligent Systems Instrumentation, Industrial Instrumentation, 
Modeling
and Simulation, Signal Processing, Image and Data Processing, VR and
Parallel systems..



International Conference on Telecommunications and Networking (TeNe 
06)

Topics: Optical Networks and Switching, Computer Networks, Network
architectures and Equipment, Access Technologies, Telecommunication
Technology, Coding and Modulation technique, Modeling and Simulation,
Spread Spectrum and CDMA Systems, OFDM technology, Space-time Coding, 
Ultra
Wideband Communications, Medium Access Control, Spread Spectrum, 
Wireless
LAN:  IEEE 802.11, HIPERLAN, Bluetooth, Cellular Wireless Networks,
Cordless Systems and Wireless Local Loop, Mobile Network Layer, Mobile
Transport Layer, Support for Mobility, Conventional Encryption and 
Message
Confidentiality, Block Ciphers Design Principles, Block Ciphers Modes 
of
Operation,  Public-Key Cryptography and Message Authentication,
Authentication Application,  Stenography, Electronic Mail Security, 
Web
Security,  IP Security,  Firewalls, Computer Forensics.




International Conference on Systems, Computing Sciences and Software
Engineering (SCS2 06)

Topics: Grid Computing, Internet-based Computing Models, Resource
Discovery, Programming Models and tools, e-Science and Virtual
Instrumentation, Biometric Authentication, Computers for People of 
Special
Needs, Human Computer Interaction, Information and Knowledge 
Engineering,
Algorithms, Parallel and Distributed processing, Modeling and 
Simulation,
Services and Applications, Embedded Systems and Applications, 
Databases,
Programming Languages, Signal Processing Theory and Methods, Signal
Processing for Communication, Signal Processing Architectures and
Implementation, Information Processing, Geographical Information
Systems,Object Based Software Engineering, Parallel and Distributed
Computing, Real Time Systems, Multiprocessing, File Systems and I/O, 
Kernel
and OS Structures.





International Conference on Engineering Education, Instructional
Technology, Assessment, and E-learning (EIAE 06)

Topics: Instructional Design, Accreditation, Curriculum Design, 
Educational
Tools, 2-2-2 Platforms, Teaching Capstone Design, Teaching Design at 
the
Lower Levels, Design and Development of e-Learning tools, Assessment
Methods in Engineering, Development and Implementation of E-learning 
tools,
Economical and Social Impacts of E-learning.



Paper Submission

=================


Prospective authors are invited to submit full papers electronically 
in
Microsoft Word format through the website of the conference at
http://www.cisse2006.org. Accepted papers must be presented in the
virtual conference by one of the authors. To submit your paper, visit
http://www.cisse2006.org.

Paper submission Deadline:	    October 13th, 2006
Notification of Acceptance:	    November 7th, 2006
Final Manuscript and Registration:  November 24th, 2006

web site: click here

Contributed by: Mariagrazia Dotoli <dotoli@deemail.poliba.it>

EUROPEAN CONTROL CONFERENCE 2007 (ECC07)
Kos, Greece
July 2 - 5, 2007

Call for Papers and Invited Sessions
ECC'07 continues the tradition of the control conferences of the 
European Union Control Association (EUCA). Original high-quality 
papers dealing with the theory and practice of systems and control 
are invited for presentation.

ECC'07 will be held on the island of Kos, Greece, from July 2 to 5, 
2007. 

All submissions must be done electronically through the conference 
submission website (euca.papercept.net). Besides contributed papers 
and invited session papers, the conference will also include plenary 
and semiplenary papers and minitutorials. Please check the conference 
website for updated information regarding the acceptable format of 
submitted papers. 

DEADLINES
Deadline for all submissions
     1 October 2006
Notification of acceptance/ non-acceptance
     1 February 2007
Deadline for final manuscripts submission
     1 April 2007

A. Contributed papers
All papers submitted to ECC'07 must be in the form of regular papers 
written in English (standard 2 column IEEE conference format) and 
limited to eight pages. A short list of 3-5 keywords should be 
included. Short manuscripts less than six pages will not be 
considered. All submissions must be done electronically through the 
conference submission website (euca.papercept.net).

B. Invited Sessions
Proposals for invited sessions are welcomed. Each invited session 
consists of six papers dealing with several issues of a unified 
theme. The proposals should contain a summary statement describing 
the relevance and importance of the session, accompanied by the full 
text (6-8 pages) of each invited paper. 
Abstracts or manuscripts less than six pages will not be considered. 
Each paper in a proposed invited session will be first individually 
reviewed, and then the invited session will be evaluated as a whole. 
It is remarked that for maximal continuity of the program, the 
International Program Committee may remove a paper from an accepted 
invited session and replace it by a paper more suitable for the 
session. Similarly, accepted papers from rejected invited sessions 
may be accommodated into the regular program. All submissions must be 
done electronically through the conference submission website 
(euca.papercept.net). The submission of invited sessions should be 
made according to the following three steps:

   1. The Organizer must submit an electronic version (pdf) of the 
session. Papercept returns an acknowledgement with an alphanumeric 
code for the proposed session.
   2. The Organizer notifies the Contributing Authors of their 
individual session code.
   3. The corresponding author of each paper submits the paper online 
(pdf format) as an invited paper using the corresponding code. 
Without the invited session code the paper will be considered for the 
normal program.

web site: click here

Contributed by: Mariagrazia Dotoli <dotoli@deemail.poliba.it>

2007 IEEE MULTICONFERENCE ON SYSTEMS AND CONTROL (MSC)
Singapore
October 1 - 3, 2007

The inaugural IEEE Multiconference on Systems and Control (MSC), to 
be held at the Suntec City Convention Centre in Singapore from 1st to 
3rd October 2007, officially brings together two international 
conferences with well established track records and long histories of 
success: the 16th IEEE Conference on Control Applications (CCA) and 
the 22nd IEEE International Symposium on Intelligent Control (ISIC), 
for greater impact and scientific exchange. It provides the 
international community of researchers and practitioners a greater 
opportunity to discuss the latest advancements and future directions 
in the areas of intelligent systems and advanced control. 
The conference welcomes paper submissions from researchers, 
practitioners, and students, and will cover myriad topics in control 
applications, and control methods based on biological, learning, and 
embedded cooperative systems.

The conference proceedings will be included in the ISI Proceedings, 
El Compendex Database, and IEEE Xplore.

Important Dates:
Invited Session Proposal Submission : 15 November 2006 
Conference / Invited Session Paper Submission : 15 November 2006
Notification of Acceptance : 15 April 2007  
Final Camera-Ready Manuscript : 15 May 2007 

For more information, please visit:
MSC: http://msc2007.nus.edu.sg/
CCA: http://msc2007.nus.edu.sg/cca2007.htm
ISIC: http://msc2007.nus.edu.sg/isic2007.htm

web site: click here

Contributed by: Mariagrazia Dotoli <dotoli@deemail.poliba.it>

ANIPLA 2006: METHODOLOGIES FOR EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES IN AUTOMATION
Rome, Italy
November 13 - 15, 2006

ANIPLA, the Italian National Association for Automation, will 
celebrate in 2006 the 50th anniversary of its foundation. 
Its annual Congress traditionally represents an effective opportunity 
for researchers, designers, practitioners and technology providers 
active in the industrial automation field to meet and share 
experiences.

As a matter of fact, the industrial production systems are 
experiencing an increasing trend towards more and more dynamic and 
complex behaviour, in order to face new requirements necessary to 
react to the upcoming dramatic changes in technological, 
environmental, economic, and social fields. 
Consequently, a scientific insight is mandatory to correctly 
understand the methodologies that master the emerging systems.
This 50th anniversary represents the opportunity for ANIPLA to 
organize a special international event in the lively automation 
world. In particular, the International Congress 2006 will focus not 
only on the numerous new ICT technologies for automation, but also on 
how the results of the technical developments should be mastered by 
the control engineer through the in-depth knowledge of the most 
suitable methodologies for analysis and design. All the issues 
related to the control and automation fields will be considered, in 
particular methods, applications, technologies and tools suitable to 
face new automation requirements. However a special emphasis will be 
given, also through the organization of special sessions and the 
invitation of international-renowned experts, to the following areas:
- advanced process control;
- measurement for automation and sensor networks;
- intelligent and collaborative manufacturing systems;
- mechatronics and robotics;
- dependability and security of control systems;
- functional safety and safety-related systems;
- domotics and building automation;
- education in control.
The goal of the congress is to bring together researchers and 
practitioners from diverse areas to discuss state of the art and 
emerging critical challenges of automation.
ANIPLA 2006 will be of specific interest to:
- R&D, design, engineering and technical professionals and managers
- New product design and development professionals 
- Academics and researchers in industrial automation and process 
control
- Business executives, key decision makers and new business developers
- Innovation Manager, technical and operations executives
- National and regional economic players
General Chair:
Luca Ferrarini (Politecnico di Milano - Italy)
Web site:
http://www.anipla.it/anipla2006
Deadlines:
April 15, 2006: Special session/Tracks/Workshop proposals
May 15, 2006: Paper submission
July 15, 2006: Paper acceptance notification
Sept 30, 2006: Final paper in camera-ready format 

With co-sponsorship of IEEE-CSS; IEEE-IMS; IEEE-RAS; IEEE-IES.

web site: click here

Contributed by: Mariagrazia Dotoli <dotoli@deemail.poliba.it>

ICRA'07 2007 IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION
Rome, Italy
April 10 - 14, 2007

The 2007 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation 
(ICRA'07) will be held in Roma, Italy, from April 10 to April 14, 
2007. This is the first time that ICRA takes place in a European 
capital. The conference location is the historical building of 
the Angelicum University, conveniently located in the downtown 
area. Tutorials and workshops will be hosted on April 10 and 14 at 
the nearby School of Engineering of the University of Roma La 
Sapienza in the area of San Pietro in Vincoli, close to the 
Colosseum.

The conference theme is UBIQUITOUS ROBOTICS. Contributions from 
academic and industrial communities as well as from government 
agencies are solicited in all topical areas of Robotics and 
Automation.

PAPERS Prospective authors should submit their papers electronically 
in PDF format. Six pages in the standard ICRA format are allowed for 
each paper, including figures. A maximum of two additional pages is 
permitted at extra charge. Detailed instructions for paper submission 
will be available soon on the conference web site.

INVITED SESSIONS Invited sessions on new topics or innovative 
applications will be considered, consisting of four to six related 
papers submitted through the regular review process. Prospective 
organizers should include a brief summary describing the purpose of 
the session and follow the submission instructions on the web site.

VIDEOS The novelty is that each paper can be accompanied by a 1-2 
minute video. Accepted videos accompanying papers will be included in 
the conference DVD. Contributors can also submit, independently from 
a paper, a 3-5 minute video for the special video sessions and follow 
the instructions on the web site.

TUTORIALS AND WORKSHOPS Proposals for half-day or full-day tutorials 
and workshops should be submitted to the Tutorials and Workshops 
Chair. Prospective organizers should include: statement of 
objectives, intended audience, list of speakers, and list of topics. 
More details to follow on the web site.

EXHIBITS There will be an exhibition site at the conference. More 
information for prospective exhibitors will be available on the web 
site.

IMPORTANT DATES
Submission of contributions 15 September 2006 
Notification of acceptance 31 December 2006 
Final contributions due 31 January 2007

web site: click here

Contributed by: Jean-Marc Faure <faure@lurpa.ens-cachan.fr>

DEPENDABLE CONTROL OF DISCRETE SYSTEMS (DCDS'07)
Paris - France
June 13 - 15, 2007

The aim of this workshop is to provide the communities of
safety/reliability analysis and of DES (Discrete Event Systems) with an
opportunity to exchange information and new ideas, and to discuss new
developments in the field of dependable control of discrete event
critical systems. Research in this field is driven by the needs of many
different applications domains, such as production systems, transport
systems, embedded systems, ...

Several research results recently issued by the two communities are
able of bringing partial solutions to dependability requirements in
these application domains. Fault-forecasting using dynamic or temporal
fault-trees analysis, dependability modelling with the aid of bayesian
networks, fault-tolerant systems design, formal verification of control
software, timed and probabilistic model-checking, fault detection and
diagnosis of DES, for instance, provide promising solutions for
increasing control systems dependability. Nevertheless, none of these
approaches in isolation can provide a global solution. Hence there is a
need to bridge the gaps between proposed models, methods and tools so
as to improve design and operation of Dependable Control of Discrete
Systems.

Gathering researchers of these two communities, this workshop will
favour exchanges and will contribute to a better interdisciplinary
approach for control dependability improvement. Works focusing on
design for dependability ("off-line" methods) as well as on dependable
operation ("on-line" methods) will be considered.

The workshop will cover all topics related to specification, design,
implementation and operation of dependable controllers for critical
discrete systems, including (but not limited to) the following:
- New theoretical contributions for dependable systems modelling and
analysis using stochastic automata and Petri nets, Markov chains,
bayesian networks, hybrid models, dynamic and temporal fault-trees, ...
- Off-line methods for fault-forecasting and dependability assessment
(design and analysis of safety models, probabilistic model-checking,
architecture evaluation, ...), for fault prevention and removal (formal
synthesis, formal verification, ...), for design of fault-tolerant
controllers, ...
- On-line methods for fault detection and identification, for
monitoring and diagnosis, for reconfiguration, ...
- Interdisciplinary approaches for dependability improvement.
- Applications to manufacturing and production systems, transport,
power plants, mechatronic systems, embedded systems, ...

web site: click here

Contributed by: Ryan Leduc <leduc _aT- mcmaster -d-ot ca>

AUTOMATED FORMAL METHODS 2006 (AFM 2006)
Seattle, USA
August 21 - 21, 2006

(Affiliated workshop of IJCAR 2006/FLoC 2006)

SCOPE: The workshop is centered around, but not exclusive to, the SRI
suite of tools (PVS, ICS, and SAL), and experiments involving the
application, integration, and extension of these tools.  We welcome
submissions related to any pragmatic aspect of automated tools for
formalmethods covering languages, methodology, interfaces, 
integration, and  experiments, including work in progress and
comparisons with related systems.  Topics of interest include  

   - Language embeddings
   - Decision procedures 
   - Model checking (symbolic, explicit-state, bounded, timed, and   
     hybrid)
   - Extended type systems, type checking, and static analysis
   - Interactive proof checking
   - Code generation and test generation from specifications
   - Combinations of the above techniques
   - Applications, including novel uses of formal methods technologies
   - Experimental evaluations and system comparisons
   - Benchmark suites

The workshop will include a tutorial on the recent developments in PVS,
ICS, and SAL, as well as invited and contributed talks.  PVS is a
general-purpose verification system based on higher-order logic with an
interactive theorem prover integrating decision procedures, rewriting,
and model checking.  ICS is a family of ground decision procedures for
satisfiability modulo theories.  SAL is a framework for specifying and
verifying transition systems using a combination of static analysis,
model checking, and theorem proving tools.  More information about
these tools is available at http://fm.csl.sri.com

AFM 2006 will be part of IJCAR 2006 (http://ijcar06.uni-koblenz.de/)
and the Federated Logic Conference (FLoC '06;
http://research.microsoft.com/floc06/)
to be held in Seattle during August 10--22, 2006.
===========================================================================
SUBMISSIONS: Submitted papers should be in PDF form and can 
be at most 12 pages long in the LNCS format.  They must be original and
not submitted for publication elsewhere.  Submissions are to be
uploaded at http://www.easychair.org/AFM.  The proceedings will be
published informally and made available in electronic form.  Authors
are strongly encouraged to make available any relevant machine proofs
or software (including proof strategies) needed to verify the results
in their submission.
===========================================================================
INVITED SPEAKER: Joe Kiniry, University College Dublin
===========================================================================
WORKSHOP CHAIRS:
        John Rushby (SRI International, rushby at csl . sri . com)
        Natarajan Shankar (SRI International, shankar at csl . sri . com)
===========================================================================
PROGRAM COMMITTEE:
        Myla Archer (NRL)
        Geoffrey Brown (Indiana)
        Chris George (UNU-IIST)
        Mike Gordon (Cambridge)
        Mats Heimdahl (Minnesota)
        Wim Hesselink (Groningen)
        Jerry James (Utah State) 
        Mark Lawford (McMaster)
        Pete Manolios (Georgia Tech)
        Cesar Munoz (NIA) 
        Hendrik Tews (Dresden)
        R. Venkatesh (TRDDC)
===========================================================================
IMPORTANT DATES:
  June 5, 2006: Paper submissions
  July 10, 24, 2006: Acceptance notification
  July 21, 2006: Camera-ready copy due 
  August 21, 2006: AFM 2006, Seattle, USA

web site: click here

Contributed by: Ryan Leduc <leduc _aT- mcmaster -d-ot ca>

SELECTIONS FROM AUTOMATICA
VOLUME 42, ISSUE 7
JULY, 2006

1) Robustness analysis of Petri nets for assembly/disassembly processes
with unreliable resources

Fu-Shiung Hsieh

Abstract

In most application of Petri nets, resources are modeled as tokens.
Unreliable resources pose challenges as existing Petri net theory is
deficient in analyzing the impacts of the perturbation due to resource
failures. One strategy to analyze a perturbed system is to study its
robustness with respect to uncertainties. In this paper, we study the
robustness of a class of controlled Petri nets called controlled
assembly/disassembly Petri net (CADPN) for assembly/disassembly
processes with unreliable resources. The number of tokens in CADPN is
not conservative to capture the effects of resource failures. Based on
the CADPN model, we characterize different types of tolerable resource
failures allowed for a nominal marking of a live CADPN. We show that
liveness of a CADPN can still be preserved under tolerable resource
failures.

web site: click here

Contributed by: Ryan Leduc <leduc _aT- mcmaster -d-ot ca>

CONTROL ENGINEERING PRACTICE
VOLUME 14, ISSUE 10
OCTOBER, 2006

The Seventh Workshop On Discrete Event Systems (WODES2004)
   Reims, France
   22-24 September 2004
   Edited by J. Zaytoon and C.G. Cassandras


1) Modular finite state machines: Development and application to
reconfigurable manufacturing cell controller generation

E.W. Endsley, E.E. Almeida and D.M. Tilbury

2) Designing dependable logic controllers using algebraic specifications

Jean-Marc Roussel and Jean-Marc Faure

4) Efficient supervisory synthesis of large systems

Arash Vahidi, Martin Fabian and Bengt Lennartson

5) Applying automated control synthesis methods to condition systems
requiring state observers

L.E. Holloway, Jeffrey Ashley and Yu Gong

6) Efficient synthesis of production schedules by optimization of timed
automata

Sebastian Panek, Olaf Stursberg and Sebastian Engell

7) Modelling and control of discrete event systems using switching
max-plus-linear systems

T.J.J. van den Boom and B. De Schutter

8) An urban traffic network model via coloured timed Petri nets

Mariagrazia Dotoli and Maria Pia Fanti

9) Monitor design for colored Petri nets: An application to deadlock
prevention in railway networks

M.P. Fanti, A. Giua and C. Seatzu

10) Design of user-interface without automation surprises for discrete
event systems

Masakazu Adachi, Toshimitsu Ushio and Yoshitaka Ukawa

11) ACTL strong negation and its application to hybrid systems verification

Zhi Han, Alongkrit Chutinan and Bruce H. Krogh

web site: click here