SICICA'97 was the third symposium in the series (1992, Malaga - Spain; 1994, Budapest - Hungary). It was sponsored by the Technical Committee on Components and Instruments and was organized by the Laboratoire d'Automatique et de MicroInformatique Industrielle, Universiteacute; de Savoie, on behalf of AFCET, the National Member Organization. The symposium was held in the Impeacute;rial Palace Congress Center, Annecy. 178 papers were submitted as draft papers and reviewed by the International Program Committee members who selected 117 papers coming from 25 countries. The topics covered include: the evolution of electronic components, especially mircocontrollers and digital signal processors which can be used for the implementation of instruments where intelligence is located in the processing; problems and solutions using fieldbuses for the control of automated processes; and the principal phases in the industrialisation of microsystems which associate micromechanics and microelectronics. The Symposium showed the vitality of the research in the field of intelligent instruments and components.

Intelligent systems, or artificial intelligence technologies, are playing an increasing role in areas ranging from medicine to the major manufacturing industries to financial markets. The consequences of flawed artificial intelligence systems are equally wide ranging and can be seen, for example, in the programmed trading-driven stock market crash of October 19, 1987. Intelligent Systems: Technology and Applications, Six Volume Set connects theory with proven practical applications to provide broad, multidisciplinary coverage in a single resource. In these volumes, international experts present case-study examples of successful practical techniques and solutions for diverse applications ranging from robotic systems to speech and signal processing, database management, and manufacturing.

A Proceedings volume from the IFAC Symposium on Intelligent Components and Instruments for Control Applications, Portugal, 2003. Provides an overview of the theory and applications and presents an exchange of experiences on recent advances in this field.

This Proceedings contains the papers presented at the IFAC Symposium on Intelligent Components and Instruments for Control Applications held at Buenos Aires on 13 - 15 September 2000. The scope of the Papers included in this Proceedings provides an insight into the application of control instruments in a wide variety of situations, from the general to the specific. The main topics that are embraced by this collection are the teaching of and learning by machines, and also the self diagnosis of faults and necessary adaptation or correction by machines.

Fuzzy Algorithms for Control gives an overview of the research results of a number of European research groups that are active and play a leading role in the field of fuzzy modeling and control. It contains 12 chapters divided into three parts. Chapters in the first part address the position of fuzzy systems in control engineering and in the AI community. State-of-the-art surveys on fuzzy modeling and control are presented along with a critical assessment of the role of these methodologists in control engineering. The second part is concerned with several analysis and design issues in fuzzy control systems. The analytical issues addressed include the algebraic representation of fuzzy models of different types, their approximation properties, and stability analysis of fuzzy control systems. Several design aspects are addressed, including performance specification for control systems in a fuzzy decision-making framework and complexity reduction in multivariable fuzzy systems. In the third part of the book, a number of applications of fuzzy control are presented. It is shown that fuzzy control in combination with other techniques such as fuzzy data analysis is an effective approach to the control of modern processes which present many challenges for the design of control systems. One has to cope with problems such as process nonlinearity, time-varying characteristics for incomplete process knowledge. Examples of real-world industrial applications presented in this book are a blast furnace, a lime kiln and a solar plant. Other examples of challenging problems in which fuzzy logic plays an important role and which are included in this book are mobile robotics and aircraft control. The aim of this book is to address both theoretical and practical subjects in a balanced way. It will therefore be useful for readers from the academic world and also from industry who want to apply fuzzy control in practice.

The IFAC Workshop on Intelligent Components for Vehicles (ICV'98) was held in Seville (Spain), on March 23-24 1998. The event follows the Workshop on Intelligent Components for Autonomous and Semiautonomous Vehicles (ICASAV'95) held in Toulouse (France, October 1995). The main objective of ICV'98 was to bring together specialists on components and instruments for automotive systems, mobile robots and vehicles in general to enhance the value of their experience in both hardware and software intelligent components. Future vehicles will deal more and more with autonomous functions to improve safety and traffic management and to reduce consumption and pollution. Numerous on-board decision systems will replace the driver in critical running phases. The problems and solutions experienced, by adopting this new technology, will bring out many common points with other transportation systems and mobile robots. Research and Developments on Mobile Robotics have produced many components for perception, control and planning that can be used in vehicles for collision detection and avoidance, position estimation, guidance and manoeuvering aids for drivers, advanced teleoperation, and other applications. The topics of the Workshop are in an emerging field in which the research is quickly being converted into industrial products. Several applications in the automotive domain, marine vehicles, agricultural and others were included in the program. In addition to the presentation of the papers, ICV also included a plenary talk and a round table about intelligent components for future vehicles with the participation of several industrial companies.