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 Postdoc position at INRIA : Discrete controller synthesis for modular
     reactive systems

3. Conferences
 3.1 2008 Chinese Control and Decision Conference (2008 CCDC), Yantai,
     China, July 2 - 4, 2008

4. Journals
 4.1 Selections from IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and
     Engineering, Volume: 4, Issue: 4, October 2007
 4.2 Selections from IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, Volume: 52,
     Issue: 10, October 2007
 4.3 Selections from IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, Part
     C: Applications and Reviews, Volume: 37, Issue: 6, November
     2007

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:

Welcome to the October newsletter,

Ryan

Contributed by: Marchand Herve <herve.marchand@irisa.fr>

POSTDOC POSITION AT INRIA : DISCRETE CONTROLLER SYNTHESIS FOR MODULAR
REACTIVE SYSTEMS

Discrete controller synthesis for modular reactive systems

In the context of the European ARTIST2 Network of Excellence, a
Post-docorate grant is jointly proposed by the VerTeCS (Rennes, France,
http://www.irisa.fr/vertecs/) and Pop-Art (Grenoble, France,
http://www.inrialpes.fr/pop-art/) project teams.

The post-doctorate program is interested in the automated correct
construction of synchronous reactive systems using the discrete
controller synthesis (DCS) methodology. In particular, This post-doc
proposal focuses on the exploitation of particularities of modular
reactive systems for DCS: it will provide an improved expressivity of
objectives, and a more efficient DCS. The post-doctorate will also work
on its integration in a tools framework (Sigali, the DCS tool, and
Nemo, a domain specific language of multi-task real-time control
systems, such as in robotic, automotive or avionics systems). The
project is open for the candidate to have flexibility in proposing
techniques and research orientations depending on previous background.

The work can be either carried out in Rennes or Grenoble (or both).
The position is for one year, and should start before the end of 2007.

We seek candidates with a strong background in one or more of the
following fields:
- Formal methods
- Discrete supervisory control theory
- synchronous paradigm

To apply for this position or to get more informations please contact
(email prefered):
- Herve Marchand (herve.marchand@irisa.fr),
http://www.irisa.fr/prive/hmarchan
- Eric Rutten (eric.rutten@inria.fr),
http://pop-art.inrialpes.fr/people/rutten/

Application should include at least a CV, a motivation letter and the
names of two referees. For further details, look at:
http://pop-art.inrialpes.fr/people/rutten/parties/jobs/post-doc-popart-
vertecs.html

Contributed by: Ryan Leduc <leduc aT mcmaster dOt ca>

2008 CHINESE CONTROL AND DECISION CONFERENCE (2008 CCDC)
Yantai, China
July 2 - 4, 2008

Chinese Control and Decision Conference (CCDC) is an annual
international conference. The 2008 Chinese Control and Decision
Conference (2008 CCDC) is the 20th of the series and will be held in
Yantai, China from 2 to 4 July 2008, just before the IFAC World
Congress in Seoul. The conference is co-organized by Northeastern
University, China, IEEE Industrial Electronics (IE) Chapter, Singapore
and Lu Dong University, China. It is technically co-sponsored by IEEE
Control Systems Society, Automatic Control Society of the Chinese
Association of Aeronautics, Application Society of the Chinese
Association of Automation, Simulation Methods and Modeling Society of
the Chinese Association for System Simulations, Intelligent Control &
Management Society of the Chinese Association for Artificial
Intelligence.

The Proceedings of 2008 CCDC will be indexed by ISTP and included in
the IEEE Xplore database, as well as indexed by EI Compendex.

Scope: 2008 CCDC covers both theory and applications in all the areas
of systems, control and decision:
Adaptive control; Robust and H-infinity control; Process control;
Variable structure control; Optimal control and optimization; Complex
systems; Co-operative control; Identification and estimation; Nonlinear
systems; Intelligent systems; Discrete event systems; Game theory;
Decision-making theory and method; Decision supporting system and
production planning and scheduling; Hybrid systems; Distributed
parameter systems; Stochastic Systems; Distributed control systems;
Networked control systems; Sensor network systems; Fault diagnosis and
fault-tolerant control ; Delay systems; Neural networks; Fuzzy systems;
Social economy systems; Motion control; Control applications; Control
engineering education; Man-machine interactions; Process automation;
Intelligent automation; Factory modeling and simulation; Home,
laboratory and service automation; Network- based systems; Planning,
scheduling and coordination; Nano-scale automation and assembly;
Instrumentation systems; CIMS and manufacturing systems;Robot control;
Mobile robotics; Mobile sensor networks; Perception systems; Micro
robots and micro-manipulation; Visual servoing; Search, rescue and
field robotics; Robot sensing and data fusion; Medical
robots and bio-robotics; Human centered systems; Space and underwater
robots; Tele-robotics;Modeling, control and simulations of biological
systems; Biomedical instrumentation; Micro- electromechanical systems,
Electric vehicles and intelligent transportation; Integrated systems
and processes.

In addition to the technical sessions, there will be following keynote
addresses:

1. Limitation of Markov Models and Event-Based Learning and
Optimization by Professor Xi-Ren Cao, The Hong Kong University of
Science and Technology

2. Extremum Seeking for Motion Optimization: From Bacteria to
Nonholonomic Vehicles by Profesor Miroslav Krstic, University of
California, San Diego, USA

3. Developments in Networked Control by Professor Graham C. Goodwin,
University of Newcastle, Australia.

Paper Submission:
Please submit full papers describing original work in detail by 31
Decemeber, 2007. Detailed information about the conference and paper
submission can be found at the websites http://www.ccdc.neu.edu.cn

Invited Sessions:
The Technical Program Committee is soliciting proposals for invited
sessions focusing on topics of the conference. Prospective organizers
should submit proposals to the Technical Co-Chairman, Professor
Yangquan Chen via email yqchen@ece.usu.edu or Dr Zhengguo Li
ezgli@i2r.a-star.edu.sg by 31 December 2007.

Important Dates:
Deadline for Full Paper submission 31 December 2007
Notification of Acceptance 1 March 2008
Camera Ready Manuscript Submission 15 April 2008
Authors' Registration 30 April 2008

web site: click here

Contributed by: Ryan Leduc <leduc aT mcmaster dOt ca>

SELECTIONS FROM IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON AUTOMATION SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
VOLUME: 4, ISSUE: 4
OCTOBER, 2007

1) A Petri-Net Approach to Modular Supervision With Conflict Resolution
for Semiconductor Manufacturing Systems

Lee, J. S.; Zhou, M. C.; Hsu, P. L.

Abstract: 

In a semiconductor manufacturing system, particular human operations
may violate desired requirements and lead to destructive failure. For
such human-in-the-loop systems, this paper proposes a supervisory
framework which guarantees that manual operations meet required
specifications so as to prevent human errors in operation using Petri
nets. Moreover, a modular technique with an intersection mechanism is
proposed in order to cope with the state-space explosion problem of
large-scale systems. A rapid thermal process in semiconductor
manufacturing systems is provided to show the practicability of the
proposed approach.

web site: click here

Contributed by: Ryan Leduc <leduc aT mcmaster dOt ca>

SELECTIONS FROM IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON AUTOMATIC CONTROL
VOLUME: 52, ISSUE: 10
OCTOBER, 2007

1)Inference-Based Ambiguity Management in Decentralized
Decision-Making: Decentralized Control of Discrete Event Systems

Kumar, R.; Takai, S.

Abstract:

Decentralized decision-making requires the interaction of various local
decision-makers in order to arrive at a global decision. Limited
sensing capabilities at each local site can create ambiguities in a
decision-making process at each local site. We argue that such
ambiguities are of differing gradations. We propose a framework for
decentralized decision-making (applied to decentralized control in
particular) that allows computation of such ambiguity gradations and
utilizes their knowledge in arriving at a global decision. Each local
decision is tagged with a certain grade or level of ambiguity, with
zero being the minimum ambiguity level. A global decision is taken to
be the same as a "winning" local decision, i.e., one having the minimum
level of ambiguity. The computation of an ambiguity level for a local
decision requires an assessment of the self-ambiguities as well as the
ambiguities of the others, and an inference based upon such knowledge.
For the existence of a decentralized supervisor, so that for each
controllable event the ambiguity levels of all winning disablement or
enablement decisions are bounded by some number $N$ (such a supervisor
is termed $N$-inferring), the notion of $N$-inference observability is
introduced. We show that the conjunctive-and-permissive (C&P)  $vee$
disjunctive-and-antipermissive (D&A) co-observability is the same as
the zero-inference observability, whereas the conditional C&P $vee$ D&A
co-observability is the same as the unity-inference observability. We
also present examples of higher order inference-observable languages.
Our framework does not require the existence of any a priori partition
of the controllable e- vents into permissive/antipermissive sets, nor
does it require a global control computation based on
conjunction/disjunction of local decisions, exhibiting that our
ambiguity-based approach is more efficient.

web site: click here

Contributed by: Ryan Leduc <leduc aT mcmaster dOt ca>

SELECTIONS FROM IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SYSTEMS, MAN AND CYBERNETICS, PART
C: APPLICATIONS AND REVIEWS
VOLUME: 37, ISSUE: 6
NOVEMBER, 2007

1)Modeling and Performance Evaluation of Inventory Systems Using Batch
Deterministic and Stochastic Petri Nets

Labadi, K.; Chen, H.; Amodeo, L.

Abstract:

This paper presents our work on modeling and performance analysis of
inventory systems using batch deterministic and stochastic Petri nets
(BDSPNs). It addresses issues frequently raised by industrial
companies, but did not receive enough attention by the Petri nets (PNs)
community in spite of its important role in the study of discrete event
systems. The BDSPN is a new class of PNs capable of describing the
synchronization of discrete and batch token flows in discrete batch
processes. Such processes appear in inventory systems or more general
supply chains where materials are purchased in finite discrete
quantities (batches of different sizes), and many operations such as
inventory replenishment and customer order fulfillment are usually
performed in a batch way because of the batch nature of customer orders
and/or in order to take advantages of the economies of scale. In this
paper, the BDSPN model is formally introduced, and its conflict
resolutions of transitions and batch firing indexes are addressed. The
model is then applied to the modeling and performance evaluation of
various inventory systems. Analytic performance evaluation techniques
are developed for the model with illustrative applications to the
inventory systems. Our study shows that the model is powerful for both
modeling and performance evaluation of the systems.

web site: click here