Reliable and Safe Operation of Distributed Discrete-Event Controllers: A Networked Implementation with Real-time Guarantees

Abstract

Efficient controller synthesis approaches for discrete-event systems mostly provide a set of interacting distributed controllers that are potentially implemented in networked controller devices. Although the fulfillment of specified requirements and the absence of deadlocks is guaranteed by such methods on a logical level, timing issues due to controller communication are not incorporated. Recently, a formal communication model including real-time requirements for the reliable and safe operation of distributed discrete-event controllers has been proposed by the authors. In this paper, the real-time communication operation of such distributed controllers is discussed, and a sufficient condition for the network bandwidth in order to meet the specified real-time requirements is derived. A simulation study of a manufacturing system model with 50 distributed controllers supplements the theoretical result.