Achieving distributed control through model checking

We apply model checking of knowledge properties to the design of distributed controllers that enforce global constraints on concurrent systems. We calculate when processes can decide, autonomously, to take or block an action so that the global constraint will not be violated. When the separate processes cannot make this decision alone, it may be possible to temporarily coordinate several processes in order to achieve sufficient knowledge jointly and make combined decisions. Since the overhead induced by such coordinations is important, we strive to minimize their number, again using model checking. We show how this framework is applied to the design of controllers that guarantee a priority policy among transitions.