Supervisory control of distributed systems: conflict resolution

In distributed synthesis and control, one well-known potential hazard is conflict between modular designs. In a modular approach to the supervisory control of discrete-event systems, modular supervisors that are individually nonblocking may nevertheless conflict and thus produce blocking, when operating concurrently. A scheme of resolving this potential conflict between the modular supervisors would be to accord priorities to the conflicting supervisors. We formalize this scheme with reporter maps from a hierarchical approach to the supervisory control of discrete-event systems. Sufficient conditions on these reporter maps for conflict resolution are obtained. With these conditions, a constructive solution is developed