Near-Optimal Online Control of Dynamic Discrete-Event Systems

A class of time-varying discrete-event systems, named dynamic discrete-event systems, is defined. The goal of this paper is to provide a method which is modular and can be applied in real solutions for the optimization of the online control of such systems. First, a simple control algorithm is presented, followed by illustrative examples of different issues that can arise if it is used. Afterward, a more complicated near-optimal online control algorithm with normalization of string values is proposed. The time variability of the systems is accounted for and the average computational time is drastically reduced. This is demonstrated with a set of simulations of the performance of the new algorithm.