Grzegorz Bocewicz – författare

Striking a balance between state-of-the-art research and practical applications, this book provides a forum for contributions that cover the main research challenges in the cyclic modeling, development, and validation of concurrently acting distributed production systems: systems that employ multi-assortment production in large quantities, are characterized by gradual changes in their product mix, and exclusively manufacture products in a cyclic manner. Similar issues also arise in computer systems, e.g., embedded systems. Cyclic optimization problems that occur in them are unique and under-researched, but are attracting new interest primarily due to their great practical importance and the difficulty involved in obtaining efficient algorithms for solving specific cases with real constraints arising from manufacturing practice. Addressing these and other topics, the book will be of great interest to researchers in computer science, operations management, and production control, as well as practicing managers and engineers.

This monograph presents a new declarative approach dedicated to the analysis of behaviors and synthesis of structures of Systems of Cyclic Concurrent Multimodal Processes (SCCMP). These kinds of problems are some of the most difficult cyclic scheduling problems - both from the computational side and the complexity of the models used.

SCCMP is understood as a set of processes (in particular, multimodal processes) that execute operations cyclically on a set of jointly used (shared) resources (processors, machines, means of transport, etc.). They model the functioning of numerous systems encountered in practical settings and which are characterized by cyclic (periodic) behavior. Typical examples are the passenger railway system, the manufacturing system, the transportation system, and etc.

Considered problems, i.e., the behavior analysis problem, the structure prototyping problem, and the problem of mutual reachability of various SCCMP behaviors, are strongly NP-hard. Thisfeature implies that computationally-efficient algorithms need to be sought. They would enable the evaluation of selected aspects of the considered system''s functions, such as service costs, transport time, etc., in real-time mode.

In that context, the presented monograph fills the gap in the field of SCCMP modeling. Its aim is to present declarative models of systems of cyclic multimodal processes. Such models allow the development of computationally-efficient methods of analysis of the behavior and synthesis of the structure of SCCMP. The particular issues raised in this study concern:

·Modeling of SCCMP with regular/fractal structures, i.e., structures composed of repeating fragments.

·Determining the conditions of mutual reachability of various SCCMP behaviors.

·Modeling of SCCMP described by fuzzy variables.

The monograph is addressed to researchers, practitioners, and graduate students in operations management, operations research, computer science, and industrial engineering. Declarative models of concurrent cyclic processes will serve as an essential reference for professionals working on cyclic scheduling problems in computer science, manufacturing, communication, and transportation services, as well as in many other areas.

The 12th International Symposium on Distributed Computing and Artificial Intelligence 2015 (DCAI 2015) is a forum to present applications of innovative techniques for studying and solving complex problems. The exchange of ideas between scientists and technicians from both the academic and industrial sector is essential to facilitate the development of systems that can meet the ever-increasing demands of today’s society. The present edition brings together past experience, current work and promising future trends associated with distributed computing, artificial intelligence and their application in order to provide efficient solutions to real problems.

This symposium is organized by the Osaka Institute of Technology, Qatar University and the University of Salamanca.