Hybrid computer-human supervision of discrete event systems

This paper presents a framework for accommodating human intervention in a computer supervised discrete-event system. The basic mechanism for allowing such hybrid supervision by a computer and a human operator is by switching priorities between events controlled by each according to some specified schedule. To synthesize a computer supervisor under such conditions, a transformation that maps the problem to one that satisfies the model stipulations of the Supervisory Control Theory is presented. The aforementioned framework introduces a parameter that can be tuned to provide for different levels of co-operation between the human and computer supervisors. Several important properties of the resulting supervisors are presented.