Petri-Net Controller Synthesis for Partially Controllable and Observable Discrete Event Systems

To enforce linear constraints on Petri nets that are partially controllable and observable, this work proposes an approach based on constraint transformation. First, a state-space equation of a Petri net control system based on event feedback is obtained by expressing a control action as a matrix, and the optimal control policy is designed. However, this policy needs to solve a nonlinear program on line. Second, pre-transition-gain-transformation is proposed to equivalently transform a constraint into a disjunction of new ones for an uncontrollable transition, and, similarly, post-transition-gain-transformation to transform a constraint into a disjunction of new ones for an unobservable transition. An algorithm is then given to transform a constraint into a disjunction of admissible ones, and, consequently, an efficient policy, which may not be optimal, can be designed. Third, in order to guarantee that the policy be both efficient and optimal, a dynamic linear constraint is introduced. Further, observing-transformation is proposed to simplify a dynamic constraint for an unobservable transition, and an algorithm is given to equivalently transform a class of linear constraints into admissible dynamic ones. As a result, an optimal controller requiring little online computation can be designed accordingly for some class of Petri nets. Finally, a maze system is used to illustrate the theoretical results.