KYBERNETIKA, vol.45, no.1, pp.3-14, 2009 (SCI-Expanded)
A decentralized structural controller design approach for discrete-event systems modelled by Petri nets is presented. The approach makes use of overlapping decompositions. The given Petri net model is first overlappingly decomposed into a number of Petri subnets and is expanded to obtain disjoint Petri subnets. A structural controller is then designed for each Petri subnet to avoid deadlock. The obtained controllers axe finally applied to the original Petri net. The proposed approach significantly reduces the computational burden to design the controller. Furthermore, the controller obtained is decentralized and, hence, is easier to implement.