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 Post-Doc: INRIA Rhone-Alpes, Grenoble, France
 2.2 Senior Research Fellow: Data Storage Institute
 2.3 PhD/MS: Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan
 2.4 Faculty Position: Technion - IIT

3. Conferences
 3.1 49th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, Atlanta, Georgia USA,
     December 15 - 17, 2010

4. Journals
 4.1 Selections from IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, Part
     A: Systems and Humans, Volume: 39, Issue: 5, October 2009
 4.2 Selections from Control Engineering Practice, Volume 17, Issue 10,
     October 2009

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 Sept. 2009 edition of the DESTC newseltter,

Ryan

Contributed by: Ryan Leduc <leducat mcmaster dotCA>

POST-DOC: INRIA RHONE-ALPES, GRENOBLE, FRANCE

Controller Synthesis for Continuous Systems Using Multiscale Symbolic
Abstractions

Starting: October 2009
Duration : 24 months
Location : POPART Project, INRIA Rhone-Alpes, Grenoble, France
Web : http://www.inrialpes.fr/
Supervisors : Gregor Goessler (Gregor.Goessler.inria.fr),
Antoine Girard ( Antoine.Girard@imag.fr This e-mail address is being
protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )

SCIENTIFIC CONTEXT

This post-doc position is opened within the VEDECY project
(Verification and Design of Cyber-Physical Systems) funded by the ANR.
This projects brings together hybrid systems and formal methods experts
from INRIA and the Laboratories Jean Kuntzmann and Verimag.

Cyber-physical systems are integrations of computation with physical
processes: embedded computers control physical processes which
in return affect computations through feedback loops. They are
ubiquitous in current technology and their impact on lives of citizens
is meant to grow in the future (autonomous vehicles, robotic surgery,
``intelligent'' energy efficient buildings...). Cyber-physical
systems applications are often safety critical and therefore
reliability is a major requirement. To provide assurance of reliability,
model based approaches and formal methods are appealing. Models of
cyber-physical systems are heterogeneous by nature: discrete dynamic
systems for computations and continuous differential equations for
physical processes.

The candidate will be co-supervised by Gregor Goessler at INRIA and
Antoine Girard at the Laboratory Jean Kuntzmann and will have the
opportunity to interact with the other members of the VEDECY project.

JOB SCOPE

The post-doc position deals with the development of sound approaches
for the synthesis of discrete embedded controllers for continuous
or switched systems. Recently, a new promising approach based on the
use of approximately bisimilar symbolic abstractions has been
proposed. The main idea is to relax the requirement of exact
equivalence in order to be able to handle more general classes of systems.
The current techniques relies on a uniform discretization of the
continuous state space and thus suffers from the state explosion problem.

However, depending on the control objectives, it might be useful to
compute a discrete abstraction that is very accurate in some parts
of the state space and less in other parts. For that purpose, we
propose to consider multiscale discrete abstractions defined on a
hierarchy of embedded grids. There are some technical difficulties to
solve as non-determinism is introduced  in the abstraction when
zooming from a resolution to a finer one.
We shall first consider simple safety or reachability properties.
In order to ensure these properties, discrete controller synthesis will
be performed on a discrete abstraction of the continuous system.
Whenever safety cannot be ensured at the coarser level at the
abstraction, we intend to locally and incrementally refine the level of
abstraction in order to synthesize an admissible controller. As the
discrete abstractions can be computed on the fly, this synthesis
techniques should avoid exploring too many states and therefore
increase the efficiency of our approach. A part of the job will be
devoted the development of a tool for embedded controller design.

CANDIDATE PROFILE

The succesful candidate should have a Ph.D. in Computer Science or a
related area. Expertise in formal methods or controller synthesis for
discrete event systems and a significant programming experience are
required. Knowledge of the domain of hybrid systems is plus.

Contributed by: Ryan Leduc <leducat mcmaster dotCA>

SENIOR RESEARCH FELLOW: DATA STORAGE INSTITUTE

Position: Senior Research Fellow (Intelligent Fiber Bragg)

Your responsibilities and duties will include but not be limited to:
- research on aircraft structural health monitoring/diagnosis using
active sensor networks
- algorithm verification on test beds to achieve intelligent structural
health monitoring/ diagnosis
- producing reports and papers from the research
- supervising less senior researchers where appropriate

Requirements:
- A PhD relevant to Electrical Engineering/Control
Engineering/Information Technology or Computer Science
- Experience, skills and knowledge in the following areas:
- Sensor networks
- Diagnosis
- Structural Health Monitoring
- Discrete-event systems
- Artificial Intelligence
- A substantial research publication track record in high-quality
journals and conferences
- Ability to communicate in good spoken and written English
- Ability to work in teams and joint research projects

For more information about Data Storage Institute, kindly visit our
website at: http://www.dsi.a-star.edu.sg/

For application of position, kindly submit online at:
http://sg.dimension.jobsdb.com/career/Default.asp?PID=3&AC=ASTAR&EC=001&GC=&JobID=3249&LID=1&SP=1&SGB249157351255417

Contributed by: Ryan Leduc <leducat mcmaster dotCA>

PHD/MS: TOKYO INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, JAPAN

The Department of Mechanical and Environmental Informatics at Tokyo
Institute of Technology invites applications for master's and
doctoral degrees under International Graduate Program. This program is
tailored to international students so that all the academic
activities are conducted in English. Professors J. Imura and T.
Hayakawa have several open positions with financial support for both
prospective master and doctoral course students. (The master course
students under this program are highly expected to continue
toward the doctoral degree.) The academic year under this program
starts on October 1st, 2010, and the deadline of the application
is November 11th, 2009. Note that all the documents required for
application should be ready by this date. For further information
about the program, please visit
http://www.mei.titech.ac.jp/index_files/kikai/IGP.html 

Professors Imura and Hayakawa's research interests
include:
Imura: hybrid systems control theory, robot intelligence, systems biology
Hayakawa: dynamical systems theory, stochastic systems, formation control
In case you want to pursue a degree under the supervision of Imura or
Hayakawa, their further research profiles can be found at
http://www.cyb.mei.titech.ac.jp/ and http://www.dsl.mei.titech.ac.jp/,
respectively. If you are interested in the program, please
choose EITHER Imura or Hayakawa for your expected academic adviser and
make contact at imura@mei.titech.ac.jp This e-mail address is being
protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or
hayakawa@mei.titech.ac.jp This e-mail address is being protected from
spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it as soon as you decide
to apply.

Contributed by: Ryan Leduc <leducat mcmaster dotCA>

FACULTY POSITION: TECHNION - IIT

The Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the Technion -- Israel
Institute of Technology -- invites applications from outstanding
individuals for a tenure track full-time faculty position in Control at
all academic ranks. All areas of control theory and control
systems engineering will be considered. Candidates must have a PhD in
Mechanical / Aerospace / Electrical / Chemical Engineering or
a related field and will be expected to maintain an independent
research program and perform academic duties associated with our
undergraduate and graduate programs.

The Faculty currently has 40 full time faculty members, 35 advanced
research laboratories, about 1000 undergraduate students and
over 250 graduate students. It offers BSc, MSc, ME, and PhD degrees in
all areas of Mechanical Engineering and is committed to
excellence in research and education. All teaching is conducted in
Hebrew. Detailed information is available on our website at
http://meeng.technion.ac.il.

Applications will be accepted until the position is filled. Applicants
are encouraged to send a letter of application, complete
curriculum vita, a brief statement of teaching and research interests,
and a list of three references to:
palmor@technion.ac.il This e-mail address is being protected from
spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
or
Professor Z. J. Palmor
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
Haifa 32000, Israel

Contributed by: Ryan Leduc <leducat mcmaster dotCA>

49TH IEEE CONFERENCE ON DECISION AND CONTROL
Atlanta, Georgia USA
December 15 - 17, 2010

The CDC annually brings together an international community of
researchers and practitioners in the field of automatic control to
discuss the latest advancements of the discipline, shape its future
directions, and promote its diffusion among the scientific community at
large.

The 49th CDC will feature the presentation of contributed and invited
papers, as well as tutorial sessions and workshops. In addition to the
standard oral presentations, the conference will also feature
interactive presentations and demonstrations, in order to encourage an
interaction exchange with the audience. Topics for the interactive
sessions will be selected specifically to benefit from the time for
interaction and discussion that are not available in a typical lecture
session, and the authors will be encouraged to make creative use of
poster boards as well as hands-on computer simulations and
demonstrations.

The CDC is hosted by the IEEE Control Systems Society (CSS), and is
organized in cooperation with the Society for Industrial and Applied
Mathematics (SIAM), the Institute for Operations Research and the
Management Sciences (INFORMS), the Japanese Society for Instrument and
Control Engineers (SICE), and the European Union Control Association
(EUCA).

Atlanta is one of the top five conference and convention cities in the
US and is home to world-class restaurants, shopping, museums, cultural
events and night life. The Hilton Atlanta is conveniently located
within walking distance of many attractions, such as Centennial Olympic
Park, the World of Coca-Cola, the CNN center, the Georgia Dome,
Underground Atlanta, an historic shopping and entertainment center, and
the Georgia Aquarium, which is the world's largest aquarium. Atlanta
International airport is only 11 km from downtown and is a major
gateway for international flights; easily reached from most major
cities in the world.

Call for Contributed Papers

Papers are invited in the form of regular manuscripts (allotted 6
Proceedings pages). Note that short manuscripts are not considered.
Papers must conform to the submission policy, described below,
requiring that all manuscripts be in 2- column format and meet strict
page limits.

Call for Invited Sessions

Invited sessions consist of six papers presenting a unifying theme from
a diversity of viewpoints. Proposals must clearly describe the
motivation and relevance of the session. Proposals must be accompanied
by full versions of each paper, which will be individually reviewed
together with the proposal itself. Individual papers may be removed
from a proposed session and replaced by appropriate contributed papers.
In case an entire proposed session is rejected, selected papers may be
accepted as contributed ones.

Call for Tutorial Sessions

Tutorial sessions addressing state-of-the-art control theory and
advanced industrial applications are solicited. Panel discussions are
strongly encouraged.

Call for Interactive Papers

Papers are invited in the form of interactive papers to be presented in
a way that involves interaction with the viewers, including
simulations, experimental setup, visual demonstrations, and virtual
reality tools.

Call for Workshops and Tutorials

Workshops and tutorials to be held prior to the conference are
solicited on all related topics. Proposals for workshops addressing
novel control methodologies and nonstandard control applications are
strongly encouraged.

Important dates (tentative):

Paper submissions site css.paperplaza.net opens 	January 2, 2010
Deadline for submission of Invited Session proposals	March 15, 2010
Deadline for submission of  papers			March 15, 2010
Notification of acceptance:				Mid July, 2010
Final submission and on-line registration opens:	August, 2010
Nomination for Student Best Paper Award opens:		August, 2010
Deadline for final submission of all papers:		September, 2010

web site: click here

Contributed by: Ryan Leduc <leducat mcmaster dotCA>

SELECTIONS FROM IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SYSTEMS, MAN AND CYBERNETICS, PART
A: SYSTEMS AND HUMANS
VOLUME: 39, ISSUE: 5
OCTOBER, 2009

1) Petri Net Translation Patterns for the Analysis of eBusiness
Collaboration Messaging Protocols 

Feller, A.L.; Wu, T.; Shunk, D.L.; Fowler, J.

Abstract: 

Electronic messaging protocols such as RosettaNet (RN) automate the
asynchronous exchange of business documents between collaborating
trading partners over the Internet. Such protocols commonly employ
mechanisms such as retries, time-outs, and fault handling to overcome
uncertainty in the timing and reliability of message transmission,
receipt, and processing. To determine the reliability and performance
of such a protocol under varying network and message processing
conditions, we have developed reusable patterns for Petri net modeling
of these common mechanisms and used them to assemble a timed Petri net
simulation that represents the RN standard's behavior. The reusable
patterns are derived through translation of the abstract
representations provided in the RN standard into an executable model,
paving the way for a multimodeling approach for supply chain
communications. The resulting stochastic Petri net is simulated to
generate performance curves guiding improved protocol reliability.

web site: click here

Contributed by: Ryan Leduc <leducat mcmaster dotCA>

SELECTIONS FROM CONTROL ENGINEERING PRACTICE
VOLUME 17, ISSUE 10
OCTOBER, 2009

1) The real-time supervisory control of an experimental manufacturing
system based on a hybrid method

Murat Uzam, Gokhan Gelen

Abstract: 

In this paper, the real-time supervisory control of an experimental
manufacturing system is reported based on a recently proposed hybrid
(mixed PN/automaton) approach. Assuming that an uncontrolled bounded
Petri net (PN) model of a (plant) discrete event system (DES) and a set
of forbidden state specifications are given, the proposed approach
computes a maximally permissive and nonblocking closed-loop hybrid
model. The method is straightforward logically, graphically and
technologically. This paper particularly shows the applicability of a
hybrid (mixed PN/automaton) approach to low-level real-time DES
control. To do this, programmable logic controller (PLC) based
real-time control of an experimental manufacturing system is considered.

web site: click here