Time Windows: An Approach to Automated Abstraction of
Continuous-Time Models into Discrete-Event Models
Abstract
This paper describes the automated generation of time windows from continuous
system simulation models. Time windows can be used to automatically generate
equivalent discrete-event models at a coarser granularity level, and they are
also instrumental to the design of event-based control systems. The generation
of time windows represents one facility in the knowledge-based multi-facetted
modeling and simulation environment DEVS-Scheme. In this environment,
continuous-time and discrete-event models can co-exist, and they can be
amalgamated with AI techniques. The usefulness of these concepts will be
demonstrated by means of a model of a robot-controlled fluid handling laboratory
for Space Station Freedom to be used for research in life sciences, microgravity
sciences, and Space medicine.