Author Description

Casual reasoning is an active area of research in the field of artificial intelligence, and significant new techniques have recently emerged. To date, however, there has been little synthesis with traditional expert system approaches based on heuristic knowledge. In this book it is shown how such a synthesis can be achieved within a system-theoretic framework. The systems approach provides a powerful methodology for analyzing casual mechanisms in physical systems. It provides a sound foundation for developing reliable real-time software casts new light on qualitative reasoning and knowledge-based approaches.