Decentralized control of distributed discrete event systems with linear dependency structure

This paper introduces an approach to synthesizing optimal decentralized controllers for distributed discrete event systems with a linear structure. Any subsystem (except of the last in the structure) demands a sequence of outputs from the next adjacent subsystem, in order to realize its own path into a goal state. This dependency is considered in the synthesis procedure for obtaining a local state-feedback controller for any subsystem. These local controllers for discrete-event systems resemble the typical state-feedback control structure of linear discrete-time continuous-valued systems. Any local controller is computed by algebraic computations, it communicates with controllers of adjacent subsystems, and it aims at transferring the corresponding subsystem into the goal with a minimal sum of transition costs. As is shown also for an example, the computational effort can be significantly reduced compared to the synthesis of a centralized controller.