Parallel and distributed algorithms for supervisory control of discrete event systems

We describe parallel and distributed algorithms for supervisory control of discrete event dynamical systems. These algorithms offer a significant reduction in time required to compute the control policy for any plant. In particular, we discuss algorithms to compute the supremal controllable sublanguage of a given language, algorithms to check observability and normality of any given language and algorithms to implement a control policy under complete and partial observation. Besides the obvious advantage of speed, distributed algorithms are also useful when the state space of the controller is so large that it cannot fit in the memory of a single computer.<<ETX>>