Group control of discrete-event systems

Group control, as defined in this paper, refers to the control method for a set of autonomous components such that given technological function will be performed. The idea is to create a two-tier control system using models of component behavior on the lower level. Group control is implemented by a model of control component interacting with the lower level models. The paper discusses two types of group control. Sequences of joint operations and constraints on combinations of technological operations for autonomous components are defined respectively for the first and the second case.