Knowledge-based approach to reconfigurable control systems.

To support the design and implementation of structurally adaptive systems, a novel architecture and programming tools were developed. The architecture enables online and automatic reconfiguration of the control structure. The most important features of the approach are: (1) knowledge-based techniques are used to represent the model of the process and the possible control schemes including alternatives and selection rules, (2) a graph-oriented computational model has been defined which allows the efficient implementation of reconfigurable signal-processing systems, and (3) a special interpretation technique has been developed which can build and dynamically change the signal-flow of signal processing and control systems. The operation of the system can be conceptualized in the following way. The actual state of the process is continuously monitored. If a significant change is detected, the process model will be updated which will start a reasoning process on the effects of the change. The result may be partial or full reconfiguration of the controller without interrupting the system operation.