ZhiWu Li

This book presents a methodology for the real-time scheduling problems of real-time systems (RTS) from the viewpoint of control theory. Generally, any system can be viewed as an RTS if it performs real-time application functions and behaves correctly depending on given logical activities and satisfying specified deadlines for the activities. This monograph provides broad views and detailed introductions to supervisory control theory (SCT) and its application in real-time scheduling and reconfiguration. Based on three popular SCT modelling frameworks, discrete-event system (DES), timed DES (TDES), and state-tree structures (STS), the authors provide RTS modelling frameworks; thereafter, SCT is used to find their safe execution sequences. As the main contribution, we use (untimed) DES events to represent the execution and preemption of each individual RTS task. This modelling formalism brings the possibilities to model the preemptions of tasks’ executions. Furthermore, in somecases, priorities cannot be assigned to real-time tasks. In order to solve this problem, a matrix-based priority-free conditional-preemption (PFCP) relation is provided, which generalizes fixed-priority (FP) RTS scheduling. As a natural extension, a generalized modular modelling framework is presented to model the task parameters instead of the global real-time task. The modular models are taken to be generic entities, which also considers the exact execution time of real-time tasks. STS are undoubtedly recognized as a computationally efficient SCT framework which manages the state explosion problem significantly. Hence, building on the (untimed) modular RTS models, a novel STS-based RTS modeling framework is formulated, by assigning dynamic priorities as specified optimality criteria, which can be utilized to model sporadic RTS processing both sporadic and (multi-period) periodic tasks, providing a small set of the safe execution sequences which rank at the top.

This book presents a methodology for the real-time scheduling problems of real-time systems (RTS) from the viewpoint of control theory. Generally, any system can be viewed as an RTS if it performs real-time application functions and behaves correctly depending on given logical activities and satisfying specified deadlines for the activities. This monograph provides broad views and detailed introductions to supervisory control theory (SCT) and its application in real-time scheduling and reconfiguration. Based on three popular SCT modelling frameworks, discrete-event system (DES), timed DES (TDES), and state-tree structures (STS), the authors provide RTS modelling frameworks; thereafter, SCT is used to find their safe execution sequences. As the main contribution, we use (untimed) DES events to represent the execution and preemption of each individual RTS task. This modelling formalism brings the possibilities to model the preemptions of tasks’ executions. Furthermore, in somecases, priorities cannot be assigned to real-time tasks. In order to solve this problem, a matrix-based priority-free conditional-preemption (PFCP) relation is provided, which generalizes fixed-priority (FP) RTS scheduling. As a natural extension, a generalized modular modelling framework is presented to model the task parameters instead of the global real-time task. The modular models are taken to be generic entities, which also considers the exact execution time of real-time tasks. STS are undoubtedly recognized as a computationally efficient SCT framework which manages the state explosion problem significantly. Hence, building on the (untimed) modular RTS models, a novel STS-based RTS modeling framework is formulated, by assigning dynamic priorities as specified optimality criteria, which can be utilized to model sporadic RTS processing both sporadic and (multi-period) periodic tasks, providing a small set of the safe execution sequences which rank at the top.

This monograph presents the state-of-the-art developments in the design of behaviorally and structurally optimal livenessen-forcing Petri net supervisors with computationally tractable approaches. It details optimal supervisory control problems arising in automated production systems and outlines a methodology to achieve the optimality purposes of deadlock prevention via converting a variety of problems under consideration into integer linear programming models. The book includes a reference bibliography at the end of each chapter and a complete index.

Deadlock problems in flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) have received more and more attention in the last two decades. Petri nets are one of the more promising mathematical tools for tackling deadlocks in various resource allocation systems. In a system modeled with Petri nets, siphons are tied to the occurrence of deadlock states as a structural object. The book systematically introduces the novel theory of siphons, traps, and elementary siphons of Petri nets as well as the deadlock control strategies for FMS developed from it. Deadlock prevention methods are examined comparatively. The many FMS examples presented to demonstrate the concepts and results of this book range from the simple to the complex. Importantly, to inspire and motive the reader’s interest in further research, a number of interesting and open problems in this area are proposed at the end of each chapter.

Deadlock problems in flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) have received more and more attention in the last two decades. Petri nets are one of the more promising mathematical tools for tackling deadlocks in various resource allocation systems. In a system modeled with Petri nets, siphons are tied to the occurrence of deadlock states as a structural object. The book systematically introduces the novel theory of siphons, traps, and elementary siphons of Petri nets as well as the deadlock control strategies for FMS developed from it. Deadlock prevention methods are examined comparatively. The many FMS examples presented to demonstrate the concepts and results of this book range from the simple to the complex. Importantly, to inspire and motive the reader’s interest in further research, a number of interesting and open problems in this area are proposed at the end of each chapter.