Computational concepts and techniques have always played a major role in control engineering since the first computer-based control systems were put into operation over twenty years ago. This role has in fact been accelerating over the intervening years as the sophistication of the computing methods and tools available, as well as the complexity of the control problems they have been used to solve, have also increased. In particular, the introduction of the microprocessor and its use as a low-cost computing element in a distributed computer control system has had a profound effect on the way in which the design and implementation of a control system is carried out and, to some extent, on the theory which underlies the basic design strategies. The development of interactive computing has encouraged a substantial growth in the use of computer aided design methods and robust and efficient numerical algorithms have been produced to support these methods. Major advances have also taken place in the languages used for control system implementation, notably the recent introduction of Ada'", a language whose design is based on some very fundamental computer science concepts derived and developed over the past decade. With the extremely high rate of change in the field of computer science, the more recent developments have outpaced their incorporation into new control system design and implementation techniques.

Klappentext

This book addresses the important and rapidly growing interface between the disciplines of computer science and control engineering. In particular, it provides a timely presentation by a group of recognized experts from several areas of control engineering of the state of the art in the application of advanced concepts and techniques from three fast developing areas of computer science: expert systems and artificial intelligence; algorithms for advanced parallel computer architectures; and discrete-event and distributed systems. Being based on a set of lectures given at a NATO Advanced Study Institute in the summer of 1987, the papers are of a tutorial nature and offer an important and unique opportunity to access material which has previously only appeared in a number of isolated journal or conference papers. In fact, in this tutorial form, some of the topics presented appear for the first time, notably in the burgeoning new field of discrete-event control. The book provides both an overview of the concepts and techniques and significant examples of their potential application to problems in both the design and implementation of control systems. Together with the large number of references provided with each paper, it offers an informed and comprehensive introduction and entry point into a rapidly developing new research area which has vital implications for the future of control engineering.

Inhalt
I. Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems.- Aspects of Expert Systems.- Qualitative Modelling of Physical Systems for Knowledge Based Control.- Computer Algebra Algorithms for Nonlinear Control.- Pandore.- II. Discrete-Event and Distributed Systems.- A Control Theory for Discrete-Event Systems.- The Complexity of Some Basic Control Problems for Discrete Event Systems.- A Petri-Net Approach to the Control of Discrete-Event Systems.- Temporal Logic and Extended State Machines in Discrete Event Control.- An Overview of Distributed System Construction Using Conic.- Structural Design of Decentralized Control Systems.- III. Algorithms for Advanced Architectures.- Matrix Computations on Shared-Memory Multiprocessors.- Hypercube Implementation of Some Parallel Algorithms in Control.- Load Balancing and Partitioning for Parallel Signal Processing and Control Algorithms.- Systolic Algorithms for Digital Signal Processing and Control.- IV. Contributed Papers.- Microcomputer Based Expert Control and Adaptive PID Control.- Supervisory Control of Discrete Event Processes with Arbitrary Controls.- High Speed RLS Parameter Estimation by Systolic-Like Arrays.- Intelligent Control Specification Language Compilers, the Q-Parameterization, and Convex Programming: Concepts for an Advanced Computer-Aided Control System Design Method.- A Design Environment for Computer-Aided Control System Design via Multi-Objective Optimisation.- Manana: a Real-time Language for Control.