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 Announcing DESpot: a New DES  Research Software tool
 2.2 New DESTC Chair

3. Conferences
 3.1 CFP ICINCO 2012 - Int'l Conf. on Informatics in Control, Automation and
     Robotics, Rome, Italy, July 28 - 31, 2012

4. Journals
 4.1 Selections from the IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering,
     Volume: 37, Issue: 6, December 2011
 4.2 Selections from the IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, Volume
     56, Issue 11, November 2011
 4.3 Selections from the IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, Volume
     56, Issue 12, December 2011

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

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

Personal note from the editor:

Hello,

this will be my  last newsletter as editor.  As mentioned in the
announcements, Qing-Shan (Samuel) Jia will be taking over as DESTC
chair, and editor of the newsletter.

I would like to thank everyone for their support during my time as
chair, and I wish everyone all the best in the New Year!

Ryan Leduc

Contributed by: Ryan Leduc <ca DoT mcmaster AT leduc>

ANNOUNCING DESPOT: A NEW DES RESEARCH SOFTWARE TOOL

DESpot is a new discrete-event system (DES) software research tool. It
supports both flat projects (collection of plant and supervisor DES),
and Hierarchical Interface-Based Supervisory Control (HISC) projects.

DESpot Features:

*  Supports flat DES projects and HISC projects, including low data
events. 

*  DESpot comes with a detailed help browser. A web version, including
many screen shots, can be found here: 
 
http://www.cas.mcmaster.ca/~leduc/despotHF/resources/helpfiles/HelpBrowser.html 


*  DESpot has a graphical DES editor, including export to postscript
and PNG graphic formats.

*  DESpot can verify the three main HISC properties individually, or as
a group using the "Check Project" menu item. Check project runs each
property check in a separate thread, so if you have a quad-core CPU,
you could see around a 3x speedup.

*  DESpot now includes the bddHISC algorithms. bddHISC can verify an
HISC project, or do HISC synthesis using binary-decision diagram (BDD)
based algorithms capable of handling individual components at least as
large as 10^15 states.

*  DESpot allows the entry of timed DES (TDES) projects for use with
sampled-data supervisory control. DESpot can output to the bddSD file
format.  bddSD uses BDD algorithms to verify sampled-data supervisory
control properties.  Work is under way to incorporate the bddSD
algorithms into DESpot.

*  DESpot has a built in DES simulator that includes graphical
simulation of the DES. DESpot can also use the HISC structure to
accelerate the simulation.

*  DESpot is open source software, released under the GNU General
Public license (GPL), version 2.


DESpot is written in C++ and uses the QT GUI libraries.  At the moment,
DESpot is available as source code and as a Windows' installer.  It
runs under Linux, Windows, and should compile and run under Mac OS X,
but this has not been tested.

See below for more details and to download a copy:
http://www.cas.mcmaster.ca/~leduc/DESpot.html

Contributed by: Ryan Leduc <ca DoT mcmaster AT leduc>

NEW DESTC CHAIR

I have been chair of the DES technical committee since January 2005.

It's time for a new chair to bring new ideas and energy to the committee.

As of January 1, 2012, I am pleased to announce that the new DESTC
chair will be Qing-Shan (Samuel) Jia.

See: 
http://cfins.au.tsinghua.edu.cn/personalhg/jiaqingshan/HomgPage_QSJ_EN.htm

I am sure he will do an excellent job. Please join with me in welcoming
him and I hope you will give him your support.

best,

Ryan Leduc

Contributed by: Ryan Leduc <ca DoT mcmaster AT leduc>

CFP ICINCO 2012 - INT'L CONF. ON INFORMATICS IN CONTROL, AUTOMATION AND
ROBOTICS
Rome, Italy
July 28 - 31, 2012

CALL FOR PAPERS

July 28 - 31, 2012
Rome, Italy

In cooperation with AAAI and Euromicro
Co-sponsorship Invited: IFAC
Sponsored by INSTICC
INSTICC is Member of WfMC

IMPORTANT DATES:
  Regular Paper Submission: February 28, 2012
  Authors Notification (regular papers): April 18, 2012
  Final Regular Paper Submission and Registration: May 2, 2012 

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ICINCO would like to become a major point of contact between
researchers, engineers and practitioners interested in the application
of informatics to Control, Automation and Robotics. Four simultaneous
tracks will be held, covering Intelligent Control Systems,
Optimization, Robotics, Automation, Signal Processing, Sensors, Systems
Modelling and Control, and Industrial Engineering, Production and
Management. Papers describing advanced prototypes, systems, tools and
techniques and general survey papers indicating future directions are
also encouraged.

The conference will have several invited keynote speakers, who are
internationally recognized experts in their areas. Please check the
conference website for updates
(http://www.icinco.org/KeynoteSpeakers.aspx).

ICINCO is interested in promoting high quality research as it can be
confirmed by last year acceptance rates, where from 322 submissions, of
which 10% were accepted as full papers. Additionally, 23% were
presented as short papers and 13% as posters.

Submitted papers will be subject to a double-blind review process. All
accepted papers (full, short and posters) will be published in the
conference proceedings, under an ISBN reference, on paper and on CD-ROM
support. JPYQ
A short list of presented papers will be selected so that revised and
extended versions of these papers will be published by Springer-Verlag
in a LNEE Series book.

The proceedings will be submitted for indexation by Thomson Reuters
Conference Proceedings Citation Index (ISI), INSPEC, DBLP and Elsevier
Index (EI).
All papers presented at the conference venue will be available at the
SciTePress Digital Library (http://www.scitepress.org/DigitalLibrary/).
SciTePress is member of CrossRef (http://www.crossref.org/).

Best paper awards will be distributed during the conference closing
session. Please check the website for further information
(http://www.icinco.org/BestPaperAward.aspx).

We also would like to highlight the possibility to submit to the
following Satellite Workshop and Special Session:
Workshop:
- 7th Int'l Workshop on Artificial Neural Networks and Intelligent
Information Processing - ANNIIP 2012 (http://www.icinco.org/ANNIIP.aspx) 
Special Session:
- Intelligent Vehicle Controls & Intelligent Transportation Systems -
IVC&ITS 2012 (http://www.icinco.org/IVCITS.aspx)

Workshops, Special sessions, Tutorials as well as Demonstrations
dedicated to other technical/scientific topics are also envisaged:
companies interested in presenting their products/methodologies or
researchers interested in holding a tutorial are invited to contact the
conference secretariat. Workshop chairs and Special Session chairs will
benefit from logistics support and other types of support, including
secretariat and financial support, to facilitate the development of a
valid idea.

ICINCO 2012 will be held in conjunction with SIMULTECH (2nd
International Conference on Simulation and Modeling Methodologies,
Technologies and Applications - http://www.simultech.org). Registration
to ICINCO will enable free attendance to any sessions of SIMULTECH
conference as a non-speaker.

We hope to welcome you in Rome, Italy next July 2012!
Should you have any question please don't hesitate contacting me.


Kind regards,
Marina Carvalho
ICINCO Secretariat

Av. D. Manuel I, 27A 2.Esq.
2910-595 Setubal, Portugal
Tel.: +351 265 520 185
Fax: +44 203 014 5435
Email: icinco.secretariat@insticc.org


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CONFERENCE CHAIR:
Jean-Louis Ferrier, University of Angers, France 


PROGRAM CO-CHAIRS:
Alain Bernard, Ecole Centrale de Nantes, France
Oleg Gusikhin, Ford Research & Adv. Engineering, United States
Kurosh Madani, University of Paris-EST Creteil (UPEC), France

PROGRAM COMMITTEE:
Please check the program committee members at
http://www.icinco.org/ProgramCommittee.aspx


CONFERENCE AREAS:

AREA 1: INTELLIGENT CONTROL SYSTEMS AND OPTIMIZATION
    Decision Support Systems
    Distributed Control Systems
    Fault Tolerant Control
    Neural Networks based Control Systems
    Machine Learning in Control Applications
    Evolutionary Computation and Control
    Software Agents for Intelligent Control Systems
    Soft Computing
    Affective Computing
    Fuzzy Control
    Hybrid Learning Systems
    Expert Systems for Industry
    Intelligent Fault Detection and Diagnosis
    Knowledge-based Systems Applications
    Planning and Scheduling
    Optimization Algorithms
    Genetic Algorithms
    Engineering Applications


AREA 2: ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION
    Robot Design, Development and Control
    Modelling, Simulation and Architecture
    Human-Robots Interfaces
    Human-Machine Interfaces
    Network Robotics
    Collective and Social Robots
    Humanoid Robots
    Mobile Robots and Intelligent Autonomous Systems
    Vehicle Control Applications
    Space and Underwater Robots
    Intelligent Transportation Technologies and Systems
    Mechatronics Systems
    Telerobotics and Teleoperation
    Virtual and Augmented Reality
    Autonomous Agents
    Perception and Awareness
    Vision, Recognition and Reconstruction
    Image Processing
    Surveillance, Fault detection and Diagnosis
    Control and Supervision Systems
    Industrial Networks and Automation
    Engineering Applications
    Social Impact of Automation


AREA 3: SIGNAL PROCESSING, SENSORS, SYSTEMS MODELLING AND CONTROL
    Signal Reconstruction
    Optimization Problems in Signal Processing
    Change Detection Problems
    Time-frequency Analysis
    Adaptive Signal Processing and Control
    Nonlinear Signals and Systems
    Force and Tactile Sensors
    Mechanical Sensors
    Sensors Fusion
    Biological Inspired Sensors
    Instrumentation Networks and Software
    Intelligent Components for Control
    System Modelling
    System Identification
    Modelling, Analysis and Control of Discrete-event Systems
    Modelling, Analysis and Control of Hybrid Dynamical Systems
    Environmental Monitoring and Control
    Information-based Models for Control
    Real-Time Systems Control
    Computer and Microprocessor-based Control
    Telematics in Control
    Engineering Applications


AREA 4: INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING, PRODUCTION AND MANAGEMENT
    Lean Enterprise
    Manufacturing Systems Engineering
    Supply Chain and Logistics Engineering
    Industrial Automation and Robotics
    Intelligent Design and Manufacturing
    Virtual Enterprises and Interoperability
    Virtual Manufacturing Technologies
    Facilities Design and Work Space Design
    Computer-based Manufacturing Technologies
    Systems Modelling and Simulation
    Performance Evaluation and Optimization
    Production Planning, Scheduling and Control
    Facilities Planning and Management
    Quality Control and Management
    Knowledge Management in Industry
    Energy Efficiency and Green Manufacturing
    Product-service Systems
    Precision Engineering
    Human Factors Engineering and Ergonomics
    Cost and Value Engineering
    Business Process Modelling

web site: click here

Contributed by: Ryan Leduc <ca DoT mcmaster AT leduc>

SELECTIONS FROM THE IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
VOLUME: 37, ISSUE: 6
DECEMBER, 2011

1) Putting Preemptive Time Petri Nets to Work in a V-Model SW Life Cycle

Carnevali, Laura   Ridi, Lorenzo   Vicario, Enrico 

Abstract: 

Preemptive Time Petri Nets (pTPNs) support modeling and analysis of
concurrent timed SW components running under fixed priority preemptive
scheduling. The model is supported by a well-established theory based
on symbolic state space analysis through Difference Bounds Matrix (DBM)
zones, with specific contributions on compositional modularization,
trace analysis, and efficient overapproximation and cleanup in the
management of suspension deriving from preemptive behavior. In this
paper, we devise and implement a framework that brings the theory to
application. To this end, we cast the theory into an organic tailoring
of design, coding, and testing activities within a V-Model SW life
cycle in respect of the principles of regulatory standards applied to
the construction of safety-critical SW components. To implement the
toolchain subtended by the overall approach into a Model Driven
Development (MDD) framework, we complement the theory of state space
analysis with methods and techniques supporting semiformal
specification and automated compilation into pTPN models and real-time
code, measurement-based Execution Time estimation, test case selection
and execution, coverage evaluation.

web site: click here

Contributed by: Ryan Leduc <ca DoT mcmaster AT leduc>

SELECTIONS FROM THE IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON AUTOMATIC CONTROL
VOLUME 56, ISSUE 11
NOVEMBER, 2011

1) Multi-Decision Supervisory Control: Parallel Decentralized
Architectures Cooperating for Controlling Discrete Event Systems

Chakib, H.   Khoumsi, A.   

Abstract: 

This paper deals with decentralized supervisory control, where a set of
local supervisors cooperate in order to achieve a given global
specification by controlling a discrete event system. We propose a new
framework, called multi-decision control, whose basic principle
consists in using several decentralized supervisory control
architectures working in parallel and whose decisions are combined
disjunctively or conjunctively. We have identified sufficient
conditions that make a decentralized architecture eligible to be used
in the multi-decision framework. We have studied the generic framework
consisting of several eligible architectures running in parallel, and
we have also considered in detail the particular case of several
inference-based Inf_Nj-supervisors running in parallel.

web site: click here

Contributed by: Ryan Leduc <ca DoT mcmaster AT leduc>

SELECTIONS FROM THE IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON AUTOMATIC CONTROL
VOLUME 56, ISSUE 12
DECEMBER, 2011

1) Approach for Transforming Linear Constraints on Petri Nets

Luo, J.   Nonami, K.

Abstract:

An efficient supervisor synthesis method is proposed based on the
constraint transformation, since enforcing a logic expression of linear
constraints on Petri nets essentially involves finding admissible
constraints. It consists of cooperative algorithms that are used to
obtain the logic expression of constraints for any set of forbidden
markings, to remove redundant constraints using the quantity
information of constraints, to judge the existence of a permissive
supervisor, to equivalently reduce multiple constraints into a single
one using net structural properties, and to approach the admissible
constraints from the original ones for ordinary Petri nets. These
algorithms are derived from a series of theorems and lemmas presented
to construct the theory of constraint transformation or reduction. In
addition, the linear constraint, whose uncontrollable subnet is a
forward-concurrent free net, can be equivalently transformed into an
admissible linear constraint using this method.

2) Bisimilarity Enforcement for Discrete Event Systems Using
Deterministic Control

Zhou, C.   Kumar, R.

Abstract:

For discrete event systems, the control to enforce bisimilarity with
respect to a given specification has been studied in ,  , . In this
note we consider the case when the control is required to be
deterministic. While a deterministic control is restrictive compared to
a nondeterministic one, the case of deterministic control has its own
practical significance as it is easier to implement and computationally
less expensive to verify. We provide a necessary and sufficient
condition for the existence of a bisimilarity enforcing deterministic
control, and discuss its computational complexity. We also study
properties related to the synthesis of "subspecification" and
"superspecification."

web site: click here