Decentralized Supervisory Control of Discrete-Event Systems in Canonical Temporal Logic

The existence theory of decentralized control is given a new development in canonical linear-time temporal logic (canonical LTL) for a refined class of discrete-event systems (DES’s). A discussion at length in the introduction motivates this theoretical exposition. In extending an existing monolithic control foundation for a specification of canonical LTL safety, the main thrust is a new LTL characterization of the system concept of co-observability in its general form, called universal co-observability. A control-theoretic study of universal co-observability along with its key boundary cases, all specializable to counterparts of existing language-based versions, demonstrates the merits of transparency and structural generality that the characterization embodies; importantly, this study reveals a more complete understanding, namely, decentralized control under co-observability is specification-modular control under local partial observation, exercised without non-trivial coordination.