Advanced Computing Concepts and Techniques in Control Engineering (Nato ASI Subseries F:)

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.