Diagnosis of discrete event systems (DESs)

A dynamic system is likely to evolve between normal and faulty operating modes. A faulty operating mode is reached when a fault occurs.

Fault diagnosis is defined as the operation used to detect a fault and locate its origin. Diagnosis involves comparing instantaneous information from the system with a reference or model representing normal and/or faulty operation.

Discrete-event models are used when we are only interested in particular instants of the system state (events corresponding, for example, to the start and end of operations, or the occurrence of faults).

In this article, different methods for diagnosing Discrete Event Systems (DES) are studied and classified according to different criteria. Their advantages, as well as their limitations, are then presented in order to explore the complementarity between these methods.

Numerous examples are used to illustrate how these methods work.