A reconfigurable hybrid supervisory system for process control

This paper presents a reconfigurable approach to decision and control systems for complex dynamic processes. The proposed supervisory control system is a reconfigurable hybrid architecture structured into three functional levels of hierarchy, namely, execution, supervision and coordination. While the bottom execution level is constituted by either reconfigurable continuously varying or discrete event systems, the top two levels are necessarily governed by reconfigurable sets of discrete event decision and control systems. Based on the process status, the set of active control and supervisory algorithm is chosen. The reconfigurable hybrid system is briefly described along with a discussion on its implementation at the Experimental Breeder Reactor II of Argonne National Laboratory. A process control application of this hybrid system is presented and evaluated in an in-plant experiment