A resource-based paradigm for the configuring of technical systems from modular components

In the resource-based paradigm, the interfaces through which technical systems, their components, and their environment interact are modeled as abstract resources, and each technical entity is characterized by the types and amounts of resources it supplies, consumes and uses. This intuitive model, derived in one application area, is shown to be in concordance with the design rationale of modular component systems. A simple self-organizing configuring inference procedure for the resource-based paradigm, resource-balancing, with a description of the environment of the technical system as the requirement specification, is derived from the basic acceptance criterion for configurations. Five levels of knowledge are defined for this paradigm and introduced in a simple representation scheme which, through its inherent locality and mutual isolation of component knowledge, allows efficient acquisition and maintenance of even large component knowledge bases. First experiences with the implementation and use of these ideals in the prototype shell COSMOS are reported