The Bifurcation Interpreter: A Step Towards the Automatic Analysis of Dynamical Systems

The Bifurcation Interpreter is a computer program that autonomously explores the steady-state orbits of one-parameter families of periodically- driven oscillators. To report its findings, the Interpreter generates schematic diagrams and English text descriptions similar to those appearing in the science and engineering research literature. Given a system of equations as input, the Interpreter uses symbolic algebra to automatically generate numerical procedures that simulate the system. The Interpreter incorporates knowledge about dynamical systems theory, which it uses to guide the simulations, to interpret the results, and to minimize the effects of numerical error.

Automatic Analysis and Synthesis of Controllers for Dynamical Systems Based On P

I present a novel design methodology for the synthesis of automatic controllers, together with a computational environment---the Control Engineer's Workbench---integrating a suite of programs that automatically analyze and design controllers for high-performance, global control of nonlinear systems. This work demonstrates that difficult control synthesis tasks can be automated, using programs that actively exploit and efficiently represent knowledge of nonlinear dynamics and phase space and effectively use the representation to guide and perform the control design. The Control Engineer's Workbench combines powerful numerical and symbolic computations with artificial intelligence reasoning techniques. As a demonstration, the Workbench automatically designed a high-quality maglev controller that outperforms a previous linear design by a factor of 20.

Modeling and Analysis of Two-Part Type Manufacturing Systems

This paper presents a model and analysis of a synchronous tandem flow line that produces different part types on unreliable machines. The machines operate according to a static priority rule, operating on the highest priority part whenever possible, and operating on lower priority parts only when unable to produce those with higher priorities. We develop a new decomposition method to analyze the behavior of the manufacturing system by decomposing the long production line into small analytically tractable components. As a first step in modeling a production line with more than one part type, we restrict ourselves to the case where there are two part types. Detailed modeling and derivations are presented with a small two-part-type production line that consists of two processing machines and two demand machines. Then, a generalized longer flow line is analyzed. Furthermore, estimates for performance measures, such as average buffer levels and production rates, are presented and compared to extensive discrete event simulation. The quantitative behavior of the two-part type processing line under different demand scenarios is also provided.