Functional Modeling of Complex Systems
Morten Lind · 2014
This chapter describes a modeling methodology capable of representing industrial processes and technical infrastructures from multiple perspectives. The methodology called multilevel flow modeling (MFM) has a particular focus on semantic complexity but addresses also syntactic complexity. MFM is applied for process and automation design and for reasoning about fault management and supervision and control of complex plants. It belongs to a branch of artificial intelligence research (AI) called qualitative reasoning and has a strong focus on qualitative modeling and reasoning about system purposes and functions. The aim of the chapter is to present the modeling paradigm which is composed of the conceptual foundations of MFM to explain the relevance of the paradigm for design and operation of industrial systems and technical infrastructures and provide a survey of the current status of MFM illustrated with modeling examples.