Control of Black-Box Embedded Systems by Integrating Automaton Learning and Supervisory Control Theory of Discrete-Event Systems

The paper presents an approach to the control of black-box embedded systems by integrating automaton learning and supervisory control theory (SCT) of discrete-event systems (DES), where automaton models of both the system and requirements are unavailable or hard to obtain. First, the system is tested against the requirements. If all the requirements are satisfied, no supervisor is needed and the process terminates. Otherwise, a supervisor is synthesized to enforce the system to satisfy the requirements. To apply SCT and automaton learning technologies efficiently, the system is abstracted to be a finite-discrete model. Then, a $C<^>{*}$ learning algorithm is proposed based on the classical $L<^>{*}$ algorithm to infer a Moore automaton describing both the behavior of the system and the conjunctive behavior of the system and the requirements. Subsequently, a supervisor for the system is derived from the learned Moore automaton and patched on the system. Finally, the controlled system is tested again to check the correctness of the supervisor. If the requirements are still not satisfied, a larger Moore automaton is learned and a refined supervisor is synthesized. The whole process iterates until the requirements hold in the controlled system. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is manifested through two realistic case studies. Note to Practitioners-Supervisory control theory of DES can synthesize maximally permissive supervisory controllers to ensure the correctness of software-controlled processes. The application of supervisory control theory relies on automaton models of the plant and specifications; however, the required models are often unavailable and difficult to obtain for black-box embedded systems. Automaton learning is an effective method for inferring models of black-box systems. This paper integrates the two technologies so that the supervisory control theory is applicable to the development of black-box embedded software systems. The proposed approach is implemented in a toolchain that connects automaton learning algorithms, SCT, and testing algorithms via scripts. The obtained supervisor is implemented as a software patch to monitor and control the original system online.