This book presents results of projects carried out by both scientific and industry researchers into the techniques to help in maintenance, control, supervision and security of systems, taking into account the technical environmental and human factors. This work is supported by the Scientific Group GIS 3SGS. It is a collaborative work from 13 partners (academic and industrial) who have come together to deal with security problems. The problems and techniques discussed mainly focus on stochastic and dynamic modeling, maintenance, forecasting, diagnosis, reliability, performance, organizational, human and environmental factors, uncertainty and experience feedback.

This book gives a wide-ranging description of the many facets of complex dynamic networks and systems within an infrastructure provided by integrated control and supervision: envisioning, design, experimental exploration, and implementation. The theoretical contributions and the case studies presented can reach control goals beyond those of stabilization and output regulation or even of adaptive control. Reporting on work of the Control of Complex Systems (COSY) research program, Complex Systems follows from and expands upon an earlier collection: Control of Complex Systems by introducing novel theoretical techniques for hard-to-control networks and systems. The major common feature of all the superficially diverse contributions encompassed by this book is that of spotting and exploiting possible areas of mutual reinforcement between control, computing and communications. These help readers to achieve not only robust stable plant system operation but also properties such as collective adaptivity, integrity and survivability at the same time retaining desired performance quality. Applications in the individual chapters are drawn from: • the general implementation of model-based diagnosis and systems engineering in medical technology, in communication, and in power and airport networks; • the creation of biologically inspired control brains and safety-critical human–machine systems, • process-industrial uses; • biped robots; • large space structures and unmanned aerial vehicles; and • precision servomechanisms and other advanced technologies. Complex Systems provides researchers from engineering, applied mathematics and computer science backgrounds with innovative theoretical and practical insights into the state-of-the-art of complex networks and systems research. It employs physical implementations and extensive computer simulations. Graduate students specializing in complex-systems research will also learn much from this collection./pp

There is a need for more inclusive holistic approaches to identify and analyze safety-related system risks. Systems are becoming increasingly more complex, diverse, and vastly distributed. Conventional approaches of conducting hazard analyses and risk assessment do have limitations. This book addresses some of these limitations and a number of inclusive approaches are discussed, which can be applied against the limitations. The book emphasizes scenario-driven hazard analysis as a means to conduct more holistic analysis. It discusses safety analyses of large complex systems; which are comprised of software, firmware, hardware, the human and the environment. “System thinking” in problem solving is emphasized throughout the book. The book is comprised of three parts. The first part Risk identification covers topics including understanding risk, evaluating safety, and scenario-driven hazard analysis. The second part Risk elimination and control addresses eliminating risk and provides hazard control methods, techniques, and applications. Finally managing safety-related risks covers key concepts and observations associated with a safety management and other topics including making safety-related decisions. At the end of each chapter there are “Questions and Topics for Further Discussion”, which enables the book to be used for graduate and undergraduate education, and specialized courses or instructional development.

This book presents the proceedings of the Thirteenth International Conference on Dependability and Complex Systems (DepCoS-RELCOMEX), which took place in the Brunów Palace in Poland from 2nd to 6th July 2018. The conference has been organized at the Faculty of Electronics, Wrocław University of Science and Technology since 2006, and it continues the tradition of two other events: RELCOMEX (1977–89) and Microcomputer School (1985–95). The selection of papers in these proceedings illustrates the broad variety of topics that are investigated in dependability analyses of today’s complex systems. Dependability came naturally as a contemporary answer to new challenges in the reliability evaluation of these systems. Such systems cannot be considered only as structures (however complex and distributed) built on the basis of technical resources (hardware): their analysis must take into account a unique blend of interacting people (their needs and behaviours), networks (together with mobile properties, cloud-based systems) and a large number of users dispersed geographically and producing an unimaginable number of applications (working online). A growing number of research methods apply the latest advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and computational intelligence (CI). Today’s complex systems are really complex and are applied in numerous different fields of contemporary life.

With industrial systems becoming ever more mechanized and reliant on advanced technology, the complexity of equipment, especially in risky industries, is increasing on a daily basis. A thorough understanding of operations and providing safety for these complex systems has become a firm requirement for many. This book offers the knowledge required by safety professionals to provide and maintain the safety of engineering complex systems. Through a scientific and engineering approach to designing, implementing, operating, and maintaining complex systems, Learning and Relearning Equipment Complexity: Achieving Safety in Engineering Complex Systems details the need for more engineering and scientific knowledge to understand and maintain their safety. It gives clear explanations of reasons for a system’s complexity, based on control systems and non-linear dynamics. In addition, the book addresses the necessary changes in the approach and the procedures for the safety assessment of engineering complex systems. The reader will develop a thorough understanding of what complex systems are, why they are complex, and how they are utilized. This book will appeal to any safety professional tasked with complex systems. This extends to professionals in risky industries such as aviation, nuclear power, chemicals, railway and transport, and pharmaceuticals.

A new approach to safety, based on systems thinking, that is more effective, less costly, and easier to use than current techniques. Engineering has experienced a technological revolution, but the basic engineering techniques applied in safety and reliability engineering, created in a simpler, analog world, have changed very little over the years. In this groundbreaking book, Nancy Leveson proposes a new approach to safety—more suited to today's complex, sociotechnical, software-intensive world—based on modern systems thinking and systems theory. Revisiting and updating ideas pioneered by 1950s aerospace engineers in their System Safety concept, and testing her new model extensively on real-world examples, Leveson has created a new approach to safety that is more effective, less expensive, and easier to use than current techniques. Arguing that traditional models of causality are inadequate, Leveson presents a new, extended model of causation (Systems-Theoretic Accident Model and Processes, or STAMP), then shows how the new model can be used to create techniques for system safety engineering, including accident analysis, hazard analysis, system design, safety in operations, and management of safety-critical systems. She applies the new techniques to real-world events including the friendly-fire loss of a U.S. Blackhawk helicopter in the first Gulf War; the Vioxx recall; the U.S. Navy SUBSAFE program; and the bacterial contamination of a public water supply in a Canadian town. Leveson's approach is relevant even beyond safety engineering, offering techniques for “reengineering” any large sociotechnical system to improve safety and manage risk.