Hybrid supervisory systems integrate and exchange information between discrete- and continuous-data-based controllers and subsystems. Application areas include process, manufacturing and service industries, healthcare, telecommunication, transportation and logistics, among others.
From the hardware point of view, the rapid progress of information-processing power and its commercial availability has made possible the development of complex supervisory systems. Many barriers that restrained the evolution of supervisory systems in the past have been removed by the recent popularisation of the open-system paradigm. On the other hand, software has not followed the evolution in hardware and both the industrial and scientific communities have pointed out the need for a generic approach that guides the development of hybrid supervisory systems.
Modelling and Analysis of Hybrid Supervisory Systems introduces a modelling formalism that merges Petri nets, differential equation systems and object-oriented methods; a formalism that is adequate for modelling complex and large-scale systems. To guide the designer and conduct hybrid modelling, the book describes a method that starts from the requirements of a supervisory system and results in a proposal for such a system. The method is mainly based on Unified Modelling Language diagrams, well-known tools in both academia and industry. In order to ensure that the supervisory system will behave as expected under any operational circumstances, a validation procedure that allows verification of the formal properties of the hybrid model is presented.
In building a bridge between what is developed in academic research and what is available to the industrial professional, this monograph places particular emphasis on the description of real-world examples; three of these - an HVAC management system, a landing system and a cane-sugar factory - are discussed at length. It will interest academic researchers working with hybrid systems and their applications and will answer the need of industry-based engineers to unify their control of continuous- and discrete-event systems.
About the Author: Emilia Villani received her PhD degree from the University of São Paulo, Brazil, in 2004. She is currently an Assistant Professor at Instituto Tecnologico de Aeronautica. Her area of work is Industrial Automation.
Paulo Eigi Miyagi received his Dr.Eng. degree from Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan, in 1988 and L.Doc. degree from the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 1993. He is currently a Professor at Escola Politécnica, the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. His area of work is Mechatronics Systems and Industrial Automation.
Robert Valette received his PhD degree from LAAS-CNRS and Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France, 1971. "Docteur d'État" from LAAS-CNRS and Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France, 1976. Currently "Directeur de Recherche" (Chief senior researcher) at LAAS-CNRS and supervisor for real-time and critical embedded system training within the Doctoral School (École Doctorale) EDSYS, a common organization of Université Paul Sabatier, INSA and École Supérieure de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace in Toulouse. After many years devoted to the study of Discrete Event Systems represented by Petri nets and their application to the local and supervisory control of manufacturing systems Robert Valette's interest currently focuses on critical embedded systems. This involves the formal verification of properties of discrete event systems with timeliness constraints and, when the behaviour of the physical system controlled by computer has to be taken into account, the formal verification of properties of hybrid systems.
