U of M College of Engineering Control Seminar Series

Sponsored by

Ford Motor Company, General Motors, and Whirlpool

 

 

 

N-Squared Diagrams, Discrete Event Plant Models and Controller Design: The View from AerospaceÓ

 

Dr. Patrick Sain 

Raytheon

 

 

Abstract:  N-squared diagrams are a form of state chart historically used in the aerospace industry to document discrete event systems.  The  diagrams lend themselves to a specialized state-space matrix description  utilizing Boolean functions that is similar in several ways to the  familiar form found in classical control.  Naturally, this begs the  question of whether various state-space results can be adapted to for this framework.  This talk presents an overview of the n-squared approach in  practice, and then extends the model to consider topics of specific interest, including reachability, detectability, disturbance rejection and stability as applied to highly reliable and complex multi-processor  systems.  In order to keep problems tractable, a hierarchical plant and controller design is enforced.  To date, this approach has been used on systems with approximately 100 operational states, many of which can be in operation simultaneously, and over 600 possible transitions.

 

Friday, September 17, 2004

3:30 – 4:30 p.m.

 RM. 1500 EECS