Concordia University
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
ELEC 6091: Discrete Event Systems
Fall 2011



General Information

Lecturer: Shahin Hashtrudi Zad
Room EV5-154
shz@ece.concordia.ca
Lectures: Mondays 17:45-20:15, MB-3.265.

Course Objectives: This course is concerned with the study of Discrete-Event Systems (DES). DES models, such as finite-state automata, are used in the study of a wide range of problems in areas such as aerospace systems, process control systems, software engineering, communication networks, automated manufacturing systems and biological systems. Compared with continuous-variable models (e.g., differential equations), DES models are coarser and provide less detail. Therefore, they are typically used where studying systems at higher levels of abstraction is desired. For instance, in the context of control systems, DES models are used for studying sequencing and supervisory control. This course aims (i) to provide an introduction to the modelling and analysis of discrete-event systems, and (ii) to cover some of the techniques that have been developed based on DES models for the design of supervisory control systems.
Course
Description:
- Introduction to discrete-event systems
- Modelling: languages, automata
- Analysis: safety, blocking
- Synthesis: supervisory control, controllability, modular control
- Petri nets: modelling, analysis
- Timed DES models.

Web Pages: - General information can be found on: http://www.ece.concordia.ca/~shz/elec6091/elec6091.html
- The course also has a Moodle web page where announcements, assignments and their solutions, along with other supplementary material, are posted. The web page can be accessed through the MyConcordia portal.

Texts: - W.M. Wonham, Supervisory Control of Discrete-Event Systems, revised 2011.07.01.
[Can be freely downloaded from: http://www.control.utoronto.ca/cgi-bin/dldes.cgi ]
- C.G. Cassandras and S. Lafortune, Introduction to Discrete Event Systems, Springer, 2008.
[Available at Concordia Bookstore]
References: - J.E. Hopcroft and J.D. Ullman, Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages, and Computation, Addison-Wesley.
- Selected papers from the literature.
Journals: Some of the journals publishing research results on the control of discrete-event systems are:
- IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control
- IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology
- IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering
- IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics
- IFAC Automatica
- Discrete Event Dynamic Systems
- Systems and Control Letters

Assignments: Will be posted on the course site on Moodle.
Project: The project involves the design of a supervisory control system based on the techniques covered in the course. The details will be announced later in class.
Midterm Exam: Date: TBA.
No make-up test will be provided for the midterm.
Grading scheme: Project 25%
Midterm Exam 25%
Final Exam 50%



Back to Teaching

Last updated September 12, 2011.