Never before has there been a quantitative approach designed to optimize supervisory decision and control for discrete event systems. The text pioneers a formal system for supervision of human-engineered complex systems, to compare different supervisory models, thereby maximizing potential for achieving high performance. It offers exciting implications for both military and commercial engineering systems.

"Supervisory Control Theory (SCT) provides a tool to model and control human-engineered complex systems, such as computer networks, World Wide Web, identification and spread of malicious executables, and command, control, communication, and information systems. Although there are some excellent monographs and books on SCT to control and diagnose discrete-event systems, there is a need for a research monograph that provides a coherent quantitative treatment of SCT theory for decision and control of complex systems. This new monograph will assimilate many new concepts that have been recently reported or are in the process of being reported in open literature. The major objectives here are to present a) a quantitative approach, supported by a formal theory, for discrete-event decision and control of human-engineered complex systems; and b) a set of applications to emerging technological areas such as control of software systems, malicious executables, and complex engineering systems. The monograph will provide the necessary background materials in automata theory and languages for supervisory control. It will introduce a new paradigm of language measure to quantitatively compare the performance of different automata models of a physical system. A novel feature of this approach is to generate discrete-event robust optimal decision and control algorithms for both military and commercial systems. TOC:I. Introducton and Background: Background information. Introduction to language theory and automata. Introduction to discrete-event supervisory control.- II. Mathematical Principles of Modeling, Language Measure, and Control: Introduction. Discrete-event modeling of physical or human-engineered plants. Signed real measure of formal languages. Robust optimal control of regular languages.- III. Applications to Physical and Human-Engineered Systems: Introduction.- Supervisory control of computer operating systems.- Supervisory control of malicious executables.- Supervisory control of aircraft engines.- Supervisory control of electric-power generation systems.- Index."

Theory of Language Measure and Supervisory Control.- Signed Real Measure of Regular Languages.- Optimal Supervisory Control of Regular Languages.- Robust Optimal Control of Regular Languages.- Advanced Topics in Supervisory Control.- Engineering and Software Applications of Language Measure and Supervisory Control.- Discrete Event Supervisory Control of a Mobile Robotic System.- Optimal Control of Robot Behavior Using Language Measure.- Optimal Discrete Event Control of Gas Turbine Engines.- Supervisory Control of Software Systems.- Supervisory Control of Malicious Executables in Software Processes.