Controllers with Minimal Observation Power (Application to Timed Systems)

TL;DR

This paper presents a method for synthesizing controllers with minimal observation predicates and costs, specifically applied to timed systems, by efficiently selecting necessary predicates without exhaustive search.

Contribution

It introduces an optimization approach that minimizes predicate sets and costs for controller synthesis under imperfect information, with a practical tool implementation.

Findings

Effective predicate subset selection reduces control costs.

Avoids exhaustive search through iterative reuse of information.

Demonstrated on two case studies with promising results.

Abstract

We consider the problem of controller synthesis under imperfect information in a setting where there is a set of available observable predicates equipped with a cost function. The problem that we address is the computation of a subset of predicates sufficient for control and whose cost is minimal. Our solution avoids a full exploration of all possible subsets of predicates and reuses some information between different iterations. We apply our approach to timed systems. We have developed a tool prototype and analyze the performance of our optimization algorithm on two case studies.