'Decision Fusion and Extrapolation for Security Supervisor Control Systems'

In recent years there has been a development of a theory of supervisory control systems based on the formalism of discrete event systems. Although this emergent framework is now limited due to its historical roots in specific applications such as the management of data communications and certain classes of manufacturing process, its results are compelling and suggestive of a much wider range of applicability. The key question is whether the underlying conceptual framework is rich enough, or can be expanded, to accommodate systems and operations as complex as power networks. There are two principal issues to address. The first is modeling. The second is the supervisor synthesis problem, i.e., how should the supervisory controller -the decision making process-be organized? Finally, we propose to evaluate theoretical constructs in the context of power system security supervision. In this instance both the modeling and controller synthesis issues are far more complex than in any other situation to which the supervisor synthesis formulation has been applied. It is certain that the application will enunciate previously unaddressed theoretical questions. On the other hand, power system security supervisors have evolved to the point where decision makers are so overloaded with analytical tools and data that the most of that knowledge and power is not useable in real time. It is our goal to demonstrate, in a limited formulation, that the proposed theoretical framework that can systematically organize both the knowledge base and the decision making order that these systems can function when required.