Automated assistance of system-control-related decision making in complex real-time environments: design and analysis problems

The author outlines some design and analysis problems posed by automated assistance of system-control-related decision-making in complex real-time environments. The process-structure-preserving approach to real-time decision support system analysis and development that is described implies the construction and use of a simulation-based development environment. The author presents the process architecture for a knowledgeable observation analysis-linked advisory system (KOALAS). In this architecture, decision making concerning overt actions of the plant is separated and distinctly supported from reasoning about the state of the plant or process. The author attempts to lend credence to the assertion that the entire structure of the formalization of intelligent control, including the problem of real-time automated decision support of a human in control of a system, is best structured around the notion of hypothesis-driven, rather than data-driven, systems