An object-oriented environment for system structuring

Abstract

This thesis describes the design and implementation of a structured knowledge representation scheme within an object-oriented environment. The knowledge representation scheme is based on the system entity structure (SES), a labeled tree-like graph which can be used to represent families of systems. The object-oriented environment is the Knowledge Representation for Object-oriented Simulation (KROS). A brief introduction to these two systems is made and a design of an automated model structuring system based on them is discussed. A detailed example based on a visual flight simulation graphical display system (GDS) is developed to demonstrate features of the model structuring system and show its utility. The SES has been implemented within KROS and does contribute formal ideas for decomposing systems. Implementing the SES within KROS allowed the use of the object-oriented methodology that KROS provides for algorithm implementation. The standardization provided by the Common LISP language allows the resulting system to be used on a variety of machines.