"ISA" research topics

Discrete state space: The DES paradigm

Discrete-Event Systems (DES) are characterized by a discrete state space, in which the transitions between states are associated with the occurrence of asynchronous events. The formalisms classically selected to represent this state space are Automata, Petri Nets, Statecharts, etc. Control engineering of industrial DES requires manipulating very large-sized state spaces as well as using trade languages, such as relay diagrams or other functional blocks languages.

The gap separating these two DES engineering approaches remains wide: formal models often go ignored by the world of industry or are not able to fully grasp the inherent complexity; on the other hand, trade languages are often too informal to fulfill the control quality and safety requirements.

Within this context, our work has been aimed at drawing the most out of overlapping these two cultures. As such, a sizable portion of our research seeks to bolster the approaches and trade languages (normalized in some instances) of the automation engineer with formal layers that enable gaining access, without sacrificing efficiency, to the domain of proofs, performance analysis or synthesis techniques. Moreover, other more fundamental research has been focused on developing new theories better adapted to meeting the expectations and needs of industry.

This new realm of research has been organized according to the three following topic areas: