On the Interconnection of Asynchronous Control Structures

Abstract

The paper is concerned with a class of control systems which can be represented by a graphical model called an MG-control system (MGCS) In particular, the closure propertms of thin class are studmd More precisely, this paper presents necessary and sufficmnt conditions for the com- pomte system, obtained by interconnecting two of these systems, to be represented as an MGCS. These results are then extended to networks composed of several interconnected control systems. In solwng this problem, it is shown that whenever the lnterconnectmn of two or more systems results m a system that is not representable as an MGCS, it m due to the presence of "deadlock" in the composite system. Hence the results of the paper provide a means of detecting deadlock in a network of control systems.