Design of discrete-event systems using templates

A new methodology for the design of DES control is proposed which allows for the creation of high-level conceptual designs by using encapsulated low-level elements. The approach can be used within the standard framework of modular supervisory control. The notion of DES templates is introduced, where typical behaviors for both DES modules and specifications are represented in an abstract way. The control engineer creates instances of these abstractions and specifies the way the instances interact. System modeling and the design of specifications occur simultaneously. Speed and robustness of the design process are improved since there is no need to consider details or to reimplement similar parts of a system. The proposed methodology is applied to a small robotic testbed to get real-world feedback.