Fault diagnosis for discrete event systems: Modelling and verification

This paper proposes an effective way for diagnosis of discrete-event systems using a timed-automaton. It is based on the model-checking technique, thanks to time analysis of the timed model. The paper proposes a method to construct all the timed models and details the different steps used to obtain the diagnosis path. A dynamic model with temporal transitions is proposed in order to model the system. By “dynamical model”, we mean an extension of timed automata for which the faulty states are identified. The model of the studied system contains the faultless functioning states and all the faulty states. Our method is based on the backward exploitation of the dynamic model, where all possible reverse paths are searched. The reverse path is the connection of the faulty state to the initial state. The diagnosis method is based on the coherence between the faulty occurrence time and the reverse path length. A real-world batch process is used to demonstrate the modelling steps and the proposed backward time analysis method to reach the diagnosis results.