OPEN ENVIRONMENTS AND OBJECT-ORIENTED METHODS FOR COMPUTER-AIDED CONTROL-SYSTEM DESIGN

Two current trends in the computer industry are towards open systems and object-oriented methods. Both are important for computer-aided control system design. The success of computer-aided software engineering is attributed to its open environment, based on a reference model that involves a service-oriented framework serving a set of tools. An adaptation of this reference model is proposed for computer-aided engineering in general and computer-aided control engineering in particular. Object-oriented methods are described, and their roles in the framework services are considered. Their particular importance for the modelling services of a computer-aided control engineering environment is established. It is concluded that a combination of open environments and object-oriented methods provides a unique opportunity for progress in computer-aided control system design that needs to be grasped if the world-wide control community is to benefit.