CAST Methods in Modelling, Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1992 Computer Aided Systems Theory for the Design of Intelligent Machines

Microtechnologies and their corresponding CAD tools have meanwhile reached alevel of sophistication that requires the application of theoretical means on all modelling levels of design and analysis. Also, there is a growing need for a scientific approach in modelling again. Many concepts provided by Systems Theory again turn out to be of major importance. This is especially valid for the design of "machines with intelligent behaviour". When dealing with complex systems, the engineering design has to be supported by CAD tools. Consequently, the methods of Systems Theory must also get computerized. The newly established field of "Computer Aided Systems Theory" (CAST) is a first effort in this direction. The goal of CAST research and development isto provide "Systems Theory Method Banks" which can be used in education and to provide a platform for the migration of CAST methods into existing CAD tools. This book, basing on different research and development projects in CAST, is written for engineers who are interested in using and developing CAST systems, particularly in thefield of Information and Systems Engineering.

1 Introduction.- 1.1 Problem-Solving by Models.- 1.2 Systems Theory Instrumented Modelling.- 1.3 CAST — Computer Aided Systems Theory.- 1.4 CAST Methods in Modelling: An Overview.- References — Chapter 1.- 2 Cast Method Bank Systems.- 2.1 CAST Method Bank System Design.- 2.2 CAST.FSM — Finite State Machine Method Bank System.- 2.3 CAST.FOURIER — Method Bank for Generalized Spectral Techniques.- 2.4 CAST.LISAS — Simulation Tool for Regular Networks of Finite State Machines.- 2.5 CAST.PN — An Editor and Simulation Tool for Petri Nets.- 2.6 CAST Applications.- References — Chapter 2.- 3 Modelling and Simulation.- 3.1 Introduction.- 3.2 System Specification Formalisms.- 3.3 Abstract Simulator Concepts.- 3.4 Implementations of Modelling and Simulation Environments.- 3.5 Multifacetted Modelling.- 3.6 Towards Variable Structure Modelling and Simulation.- References — Chapter 3.- 4 Machine Vision.- 4.1 Introduction.- 4.2 CAST and Machine Vision.- 4.3 Modelling Objects for Visual Recognition.- 4.4 Spontaneous Recognition of Structured Objects.- 4.5 An Integrated Development Tool for Machine Vision.- References — Chapter 4.- 5 Implementation Issues.- 5.1 Software Development for CAST.- 5.2 Building Class Hierarchies.- 5.3 Browsers for CAST Tools.- 5.4 Implementing Data Persistency in LISP.- 5.5 Direct Embedding of Procedural Code in LISP.- References — Chapter 5.- Appendix: CAST.FSM User’s Guide.- A.1 CAST.FSM Background.- A.2 System Requirements.- A.2.1 Hardware.- A.2.2 Software.- A.3 CAST.FSM Installation.- A.4 Starting a CAST Session and Browsing.- A.4.1 The CAST Class Browser.- A.4.2 The CAST Instance Browser.- A.4.3 Defining a System.- A.4.4 Petri Nets Make the Difference.- A.5 Table Editing.- A.6 Analysis Operations.- A.6.1 I/O-Experiment.- A.6.2Lattice.- A.6.3 Others.- A.7 Synthesis, System Transformations and the Realization Tree.- A.8 Living with a Prototype: Errors and Breaks.- A.8.1 Beginners and casual CAST.FSM Users.- A.8.2 Power Users.- A.9 Saving Realizations on Files.- References — Appendix.