Application of Supervisory Control Synthesis to a Patient Support Table of a Magnetic Resonance Imaging Scanner

In this paper, we present a case-study on application of Ramadge-Wonham supervisory control theory (abbreviated by SCT in the sequel) to a patient support system of a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner. We discuss the whole developmental cycle, starting from the mathematical models of the uncontrolled system and of the control requirements, and ending with the implementation of the obtained controller on the actual hardware. The obtained controller was tested on the physical system. In this case study, we attempted to build the models in a modular way, in order to decrease the computational complexity of the controller synthesis and to improve the adaptability of the models. An important advantage of SCT is that it allows automatic generation of the controller, and that it can thus improve adaptability of the control software. We also briefly discuss our experience on the adaptability of the control software, obtained in the course of this case study.