Computational concepts and techniques have always played a major role in control engineering since the first computer-based control systems were put into operation over twenty years ago. This role has in fact been accelerating over the intervening years as the sophistication of the computing methods and tools available, as well as the complexity of the control problems they have been used to solve, have also increased. In particular, the introduction of the microprocessor and its use as a low-cost computing element in a distributed computer control system has had a profound effect on the way in which the design and implementation of a control system is carried out and, to some extent, on the theory which underlies the basic design strategies. The development of interactive computing has encouraged a substantial growth in the use of computer aided design methods and robust and efficient numerical algorithms have been produced to support these methods. Major advances have also taken place in the languages used for control system implementation, notably the recent introduction of Ada'", a language whose design is based on some very fundamental computer science concepts derived and developed over the past decade. With the extremely high rate of change in the field of computer science, the more recent developments have outpaced their incorporation into new control system design and implementation techniques.

Linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) have recently emerged as useful tools for solving a number of control problems. This book provides an up-to-date account of the LMI method and covers topics such as recent LMI algorithms, analysis and synthesis issues, nonconvex problems, and applications. It also emphasizes applications of the method to areas other than control.

The Summer School in Marktoberdorf 1990 had as its overall theme the development of programs as an activity that can be carried out based on and supported by a mathematical method. In particular mathematical methods for the development of programs as parts of distributed systems were included. Mathematical programming methods are a very important topic for which a lot of research in recent years has been carried out. In the Marktoberdorf Summer School outstanding scientists lectured on mathematical programming methods. The lectures centred around logical and functional calculi for the • specification, • refinement, • verification of programs and program systems. Some extremely remarkable examples were given. Looking at these examples it becomes clear that proper research and teaching in the area of program methodology should always show its value by being applied at least to small examples or case studies. It is one of the problems of computing science that examples and case studies have to be short and small to be lJresentable in lectures and papers of moderate size. However, even small examples can tell a lot about the tractability and adequacy of methods and being able to treat small examples does at least prove that the method can be applied in modest ways. Furthermore it demonstrates to some extent the notational and calculational overhead of applying formal methods.

This book identifies elements in industrial training programs incorporating advanced educational technology that could be appropriately transferred to the secondary school environment. New didactic concepts for developing key qualifications through technology education programs using advanced educational technology in innovative integrative situations are explained from educational, technological, engineering, and management perspectives. The target of the work is to develop integrated learning situations suitable for secondary schools and teacher education, as well as for university-level technology, teacher education, and engineering programs. The book is based on a NATO Advanced Research Workshop held within the NATO Special Programme on Advanced Educational Technology.

Papers presented at the workshop are representative of the state-of-the art of artificial intelligence in real-time control. The issues covered included the use of AI methods in the design, implementation, testing, maintenance and operation of real-time control systems. While the focus was on the fundamental aspects of the methodologies and technologies, there were some applications papers which helped to put emerging theories into perspective. The four main subjects were architectural issues; knowledge - acquisition and learning; techniques; and scheduling, monitoring and management.

This volume is based on a NATO Advanced Research Workshop on User-Centred Requirements for Software Engineering Environments held in Bonas, France, in September 1991. The workshop was organized in two halves, one dominated by discussion of usability problems in software engineering and the other by discussion of existing solutions to these problems. The papers in the volume are grouped under four themes: - Design activities and representations for design - Code representation and manipulation - Technological solutions - The impact of design methods and new programming paradigms.

Issues relating to the emergence, persistence, and stability of cooperation among social agents of every type are widely recognized to be of paramount importance. They are also analytically difficult and intellectually challenging. This book, arising from a NATO Advanced Study Institute held at SUNY in 1994, is an up-to-date presentation of the contribution of game theory to the subject. The contributors are leading specialists who focus on the problem from the many different angles of game theory, including axiomatic bargaining theory, the Nash program of non-cooperative foundations, game with complete information, repeated and sequential games, bounded rationality methods, evolutionary theory, experimental approaches, and others. Together they offer significant progress in understanding cooperation.