| The complexity of current computer control systems arises from the engineering requirement to integrate computers, actuators and sensors for control, signal processing and data networks, visualisation and display with the technology of the application domain. Further, real-time control systems, employing embedded and distributed computing, as compared with central supervisory computers, have the added difficulty of correct task computation to time deadlines and associated reliability specifications.
The breadth of the technologies involved, combined with the range of applications which encompasses aerospace, manufacturing, robotics, environmental, chemical production, electric power generation and economic systems, for example, presents difficulties in presenting the latest research developments. For this reason it has been decided to initiate a series of Special Issues in relevant journals, one of which appeared recently [ 1 ]. The four papers in this Special Issue are all concerned with the common theme of complex, real-time computer control. |
