Information-efficient control of discrete event stochastic systems

Abstract

A state of a discrete event stochastic system (DESS) can be represented by a tuple of time-varying discrete parameters. The authors have extended the theory of controlled discrete event systems developed by Ramadge, Wonham and other researchers to stochastic modeling and performance measurement. This work presents some important characteristics of the DESS model. The problem of making the most efficient use of information-processing resources (sensors, computer capacity, etc.) in a special class of controlled systems is stated in a new, two-stage format. The format is used to develop a heuristic solution procedure of the problem. Finally, we perform a brief discussion of the model applicability to real-life design of automatic supervisors.