Complex Engineered Systems

Recent advances in science and technology have led to a rapid increase
in the complexity of most engineered systems. In many notable cases,
this change has been a qualitative one rather than merely one of magnitude.
A new class of Complex Engineered Systems (CES) has emerged as a result
of technologies such as the Internet, GPS, wireless networking, micro-robotics, MEMS, fiber-optics and nanotechnology. These complex engineered systems are composed of many heterogeneous subsystems and are characterized by observable complex behaviors that emerge as a result of nonlinear spatio-temporal interactions among the subsystems at several levels of organization and abstraction. Examples of such systems include the World-Wide Web, air and ground traffic networks, distributed manufacturing environments, and globally distributed supply networks, as well as new paradigms such as self-organizing sensor networks, self-configuring robots, swarms of autonomous aircraft, smart materials and structures, and self-organizing computers. Understanding, designing, building and controlling such complex systems is going to be a central challenge for engineers in the coming decades.

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Every time that we take money out of an ATM, surf the internet or simply turn on a light switch, we enjoy the benefits of complex engineered systems. Systems like power grids and global communication networks are so ubiquitous in our daily lives that we usually take them for granted, only noticing them when they break down. But how do such amazing technologies and infrastructures come to be what they are? How are these systems designed? How do distributed networks work? How are they made to respond rapidly in 'real time'? And as the demands that we place on these systems become increasingly complex, are traditional systems-engineering practices still relevant?

This volume examines the difficulties that arise in creating highly complex engineered systems and new approaches that are being adopted. Topics addressed range from the formal representation and classification of distributed networked systems to revolutionary engineering practices inspired by biological evolution. By bringing together the latest research in Complex Engineered Systems, this book sheds light on the current state and future course of this emerging field.

Résumé

Recent advances in science and technology have led to a rapid increase
in the complexity of most engineered systems. In many notable cases,
this change has been a qualitative one rather than merely one of magnitude.
A new class of Complex Engineered Systems (CES) has emerged as a result
of technologies such as the Internet, GPS, wireless networking, micro-robotics, MEMS, fiber-optics and nanotechnology. These complex engineered systems are composed of many heterogeneous subsystems and are characterized by observable complex behaviors that emerge as a result of nonlinear spatio-temporal interactions among the subsystems at several levels of organization and abstraction. Examples of such systems include the World-Wide Web, air and ground traffic networks, distributed manufacturing environments, and globally distributed supply networks, as well as new paradigms such as self-organizing sensor networks, self-configuring robots, swarms of autonomous aircraft, smart materials and structures, and self-organizing computers. Understanding, designing, building and controlling such complex systems is going to be a central challenge for engineers in the coming decades.

Contenu
Complex Engineered Systems: A New Paradigm.- Engineering Complex Systems: Multiscale Analysis and Evolutionary Engineering.- The Structure and Dynamics of Complex Product Design.- On the Nature of Design.- Creation of desirable complexity: strategies for designing selforganized systems.- Understanding the Complexity of Design.- Spiraling out of Control: Problem-Solving Dynamics in Complex Distributed Engineering Projects.- The Dynamics of Collaborative Design: Insights From Complex Systems and Negotiation Research.- Modularity in the Design of Complex Engineering Systems.- Engineering Complex Systems.- Negotiation algorithms for collaborative design settings.- Information Theory ? The Bridge Connecting Bounded Rational Game Theory and Statistical Physics.- Engineering Amorphous Systems, Using Global-to-Local Compilation.- A Machine Learning Method for Improving Task Allocation in Distributed Multi-Robot Transportation.- Towards Pro-active Embodied Agents: On the Importance of Neural Mechanisms Suitable to Process Time Information.- Autonomous Discovery and Functional Response to Topology Change in Self-Reconfigurable Robots.